Retrieval Saga: Dragon's Temptation
by Cydra
Summary: The power of dragons have been spoken widely throughout the world. But to those unfamliar with its true power, it can be quite corruptive, as the gang will surely find out. Crossover with American Dragon: Jake Long.
1. Party Time

**Retrieval Saga**

**Dragon's Temptation**

**Chapter 1: Party Time**

About a week after the Seven Sins Clones were defeated, the occasion everyone was waiting for arrived: Lilo's birthday. Matt and the crew had vanished for a few days and on their return were VERY secretive except for Matt to say he'd got Lilo something special. Only Chip had a nervous feeling when he'd poked in the ships nav-log and seen one of Romanov's weapon dealer stations in the destination list. When Draco, Chip, Contrinus, and Morph went to look for their gift, they decided to check out the local magical trinket shop. Stitch however hadn't had a chance to get a present yet, so was heading for the North Star. Surely Matt had found something over the years that Stitch could give Lilo.

Stitch sniffed around the North Star's cargo bay for something he could give Lilo. What he mostly found was guns and blasters of various kinds. He also found what looked like a beeper with a slot to swipe cards through, but it didn't seem to be worth much. Matt walked in and spotted Stitch about to do what he sometimes did, and which was the reason someone usually came into cargo with him, eat the beeper. "STITCH!" he yelled and grabbed it. "No eatey. What you doing here?" he said putting the beeper in a small wall safe. "Looking for present," said Stitch. "Present? What present? There's no present here," said Matt defensively. "Er, I meant for me to give to Lilo." Matt seemed to relax, stepping in front of a lethal-looking laser cannon at the same time. "How about that amulet we got in the Ghost Zone? It's fake so we shouldn't have a problem," he said. "Good idea," said Stitch and he grabbed the amulet hanging on the wall and walked out. "Whew, that was close," said Matt as he stepped away from the rifle. He looked at the safe and said to himself, "I wonder if I'll ever go back there?" He shrugged and went off to terrify the gunner crews into loading the home made 'fireworks' they'd worked on all day. Evil, yes, but everyone has to have some fun sometimes.

There was another matter of importance; preparing an edible birthday cake. Techo and Wilson had volunteered, but after the last time, in which the first ever example of mass experiment food-poisoning took place, they'd been banned. Nani was handling it while some guards tried to stop Pleakley from helping.

Wilson had also taken care of any chance that Gantu would pay a visit. Wilson and the heavy weapon squad called out happily at the colander-ized ship. "Ok...say it again. 'I promise to take the day off from experiment hunting' and then we'll go away." The crew hadn't had so much fun in ages. Techo also set up a defense grid around the house. "That should keep out Silvia, NegaMorph, or any Viral Clones who want to attack," he said to Draco, Chip, and Morph. Immediately, an arm extended out, grabbed Morph, and started beating him against the ground. "You do realize that as Morph's clone, NegaMorph has the same DNA as him," said Chip. "Fancy that," said Draco as Morph went flying. Techo shrugged, "He ate my sandwich earlier...bet you the defense arm can throw him to the beach."

Matt was going over the list of the experiment coming and was looking at the scanner set up to find any clones that would try to sneak in. Houdini was actually helping, having arrived from Vegas a few hours ago. Matt was having trouble though...he'd caught a cold and every time he sneezed, a plasma orb would blow something up. Houdini had been invisible for an hour. "I think I can take care of that cold," said Contrinus. "Actually, I think I will take care of him," said Kala, a little forcefully. "How can you?" said Contrinus, "I thought you could only cure EXP Viruses, not cold viruses." "I said I'll take care of him," growled Kala. Matt watched them both, even Houdini became visible as the two started fighting over who would cure Matt. "You know, Houdini? This cold isn't so bad," he said as they watched before adding, "Ten bucks on Kala." Draco walked by as he saw the girls bickering. "Must be a full moon," he said. Suddenly Morph came flying by and landed in a tree. His tail caught on a branch, hanging him upside-down and showing his rump for all the world to see. "I wish I didn't say or see that." Matt chose to look ahead. "If I can't see it, I won't go mental," he said sagely before walking off.

The party itself went surprisingly well. For once something Matt designed worked, as the firework mortars went off without a hitch, except for a slight tense moment when Matt sneezed near them. It turned out that a few of the experiments had no idea of Lilo's EXP infection, a few of them gaping and Melty fainting from shock when she arrived. When it came to the presents, there was a sizeable pile. Lilo picked Draco, Chip, Morph, and Contrinus' present first. It turned out to be a shrunken head. "I recall it had some special ability, but I can't remember what that was," said Draco. Lilo waved it around and suddenly zombies came out of the floor. "Oh, that's what it was." Morph quickly took out his mallet and dispatched with the zombies in a surprisingly fast time. "The Pest-o-Mallet," said Morph, "effective against all pests whether they be vermin, annoying relatives, or flesh-craving undead."

Matt grinned. "Me next," he said as a remaining zombie headed towards him. He pulled out a small rifle and aimed at it before firing a yellow orb that picked up the zombie then vanished, taking the undead with it. "The Quad-4 Itenium rifle. Hope you like it," he said before Nani snatched it off him. "What are thinking?! Giving Lilo a dangerous weapons like that?" shouted Nani. "Don't worry, it's perfectly safe," said Matt. But then it went off and seemingly vaporized Chip's head. But then Chip's head popped out of his body and said, "That was a close shave." Matt said, without a change of mental gears. "Mostly safe," but took it back glumly, "I'll take you to a commerce station next time we pass one."

Then Stitch handed his present over to Lilo. She opened it and gasped when she found the Amulet in the box. "Didn't we get this when we were in the Ghost Zone?" she said. "Yes, but it's powerless so it should be safe for you to wear." Matt nodded. "Perfectly safe. We left the real one back in the GZ," he said before wandering off towards the cake. Morph was also eyeing it hungrily and was opening his mouth really wide. "Eat all of that cake and I'll rip out your uvula," said Matt. Morph quickly closed his mouth and said to himself, "What's a uvula?"

Unnoticed, two figures were watching from the edge of the party. Matt and the crew would have known the first straight off, Chang, thought she'd only had a brief run-in with New York's CPS unit a few months ago. "There it is," said Chang, "the Anarchic Amulet of Aragon. Its ghostly dragon power will be quite useful to our plans." "I don't know," said the monkey beside her, "I'd prefer something with more bling. That thing's just plain tacky." The monkey, whose name was Bananas B, stepped back, tripping a laser. A 'tree' next to them began beeping loudly. Chang got a horrible feeling. "I hate that human," she muttered.

Techo and Wilson were nearby. "Hey...did you just hear two screams?" said Techo as one of the hidden perimeter traps tossed the two villains at the nearby mountain.

* * *

There's the start of a new story. This one will move a lot swifter and will be much shorter than the last one. You will definitely want to read the update for this story, especially since Chang and Bananas B, two known threats to the magical community, are after Lilo. Until then, please review.


	2. Reckless Gift

**Retrieval Saga**

**Dragon's Temptation**

**Chapter 2: Reckless Gift**

The next morning, Matt woke up with a groggy feeling. He could remember everything up to the point he'd been challenged by Chris to a drinking contest, then everything had gone dark. The thing that had woke him up was the communicator beeping. "Yes? This had better be good, I feel like I've went three rounds with Hyena," he said, clicking the connect button. Nani's voice came through the communicator. "Matt, do you think you could drop Lilo off at hula class? I have too much work today." "Ok, fine, I'll be along, as soon as I've drank the ship's supply of coffee," said Matt. He hung up and hit the room's dispenser to give him black coffee. As he walked down the hallway, he said to himself, "I wonder who won that contest?" Matt walked passed Chris's room, where he was snoring like a sawmill. Draco was currently trying to wake him up with several slaps to the face, but no results so far. "I guess that answers that."

Matt got into the modified 4x4 they'd bought on the same trip to get Lilo's 'present' and drove down the ramp towards the Pelekai house before parking and pressing the horn. "Ok, no more horn," he said as his head throbbed. 'Oh dear lord, what hit this place?' moaned V-627 as Lilo and Stitch came out of the house. Lilo looked annoyed and was wearing the amulet. "Morning birthday girl," Matt said as she got in before looking at Stitch, who was eyeing the dashboard of buttons. "No touchy, much," he said. Matt noticed Lilo wasn't as cheery as usual. "Is something wrong?" he said. "I'm just in a bad mood right now," said Lilo. "Really, why's that?" "I just am, OK!" Matt winced, partly from shock, mostly from the demonic hangover he had.

The trip into town wasn't any better, especially when Matt missed the turning point due to his hangover and had to circle around. "Look, just calm down. You're not late. I'm glad I didn't give the blaster now; I don't think you're in the right mind to be given a weapon," he said as they pulled up, "Your inhibitor all charged?" "Yes it is, you don't have to keep reminding me. You're not my father." "Whoa, now that is a lot of disrespect, young lady," said Matt, "Even if I'm not your father, I am responsible for you and I want to make sure you're okay." "Just leave me alone!" snapped Lilo. Matt wasn't sure, but he could have sworn her eyes just flashed red.

Matt wasn't taking any chances, especially since the inhibitors weren't 100 percent effective. "Keep an eye on her, ok?" said Matt to Stitch before starting the drive back. The car's computer beeped, "Priority transmission coming. Matt hit the connection, it was Frostbite. "Hey Frosty. What can I do for ya?" he said with a grin. "I think there's a problem," said Frostbite. "Ghoulwyrm's on the loose again?" asked Matt. "I believe he's still in the Ghost Zone. The problem is I believe there is a mix-up regarding the Amulets." Matt almost crashed then and there. "Mix-up?" he said weakly, "This isn't the 'accidentally teamed up with the enemy' type mix-up, is it?" "Er, not quite, I believe the duplicate Amulet you brought back is actually the Anarchic Amulet. I would come to retrieve it myself, but there aren't any ghost portals in Hawaii and apparently only resident spirits can materialize there." "Matt stared. "Tell me you're kidding. I dropped her off near the only people who upset her… I'll call you back," he said, cutting the connection and calling the ship.

The alarm on the North Star began to wail. "Now hear this. All personnel to combat ready. Stun guns and cryogas grenades only. Meet me in town. NOW!" said Matt's voice over the PA system. The crew didn't need telling twice and were in various vehicles in minutes, surprising Draco, Chip, and Morph when they saw the group heading from the ship. "Where do you think they're all going?" asked Draco. "I don't know, but it looks important, and it's for catching something alive." Morph was looking elsewhere and said, "Ooh, look at the dancing monkey." "Now's not the time to act goofy again," said Draco. Neither he nor Chip realize or notice Morph was right for once, and the monkey in question was wearing a gold-colored tracking suit.

Matt, meanwhile had arrived back at the class. It looked like the class was late starting. The jeep's scanner detected only two humans and an experiment. Matt got to the door just in time to hear Myrtle speaking. Judging by the tone in her voice, it was apparently something quite nasty. "Uh oh," he said. Meanwhile, NegaMorph was walking past. He wasn't looking for Viral Clones this time, just carrying groceries. "I cannot wait until we get to leave this place," said NegaMorph. Then he heard some shouting and he looked through the window of a nearby building and saw Lilo and Myrtle having a loud argument. NegaMorph couldn't quite make out what they were yelling about, but he distinctly heard Myrtle call Lilo 'freak' and that apparently sent her over the edge. NegaMorph was actually starting to feel pity for her when she was suddenly surrounded in green light. Then he remembered he had somewhere to go and walked away, at a faster speed than before. Matt burst in at the same time and said, "Oh crap."

Techo and Chris had left the other members of the crew setting up a perimeter and arrived at the school in time to see Matt flung through the wall and into his car hard enough to flip it over and explode. "Holy-" began Techo as a dragon that looked a lot like Dora flew out the hole. "HEY YOU, HOLD IT!" yelled Chris and the dragon turned to stare, before launching a fireball at their vehicle. Techo and Chris only just got out in time, good thing it was too as the fireball blew their hardened vehicle to scrap. "Ok, this kinda sucks," said Techo. Matt stumbled upwards and said, "That thing's Lilo. That Amulet she's wearing was the Anarchic one. We have to get it off her before she tears apart the island. Oh, and Myrtle will need a mind-wipe." Techo shrugged, "I'll handle it, but how we gonna tell the crew." The sound of weapon fire was heard. "Like anything we have could hurt her at the moment," said Matt. The crew began shooting wildly as Dragon Lilo came around the corner, but they might as well have been throwing water balloons for all the good it did. The air blast as she flew overhead was enough to flip a few vehicles and to knock over the crew.

From a nearby tree, Bananas B was watching the action. "Hmm, that little girl can get pretty nasty. I told Chang I'd bring her the Amulet, but I don't think she'd mind if I bring her back a ghostly dragon instead."

Matt, Chris, and Techo arrived to see that some of the experiments had turned up to help the crew to get their vehicles upright again. Matt was prepared for Draco to chew him out over misuse of magical gear again like he had about the Fang Stone. However, Draco's attention was immediately preoccupied with the ghost dragon flying over town. "We've got to get her out of here. Some place where innocent people won't get hurt." An officer was holding a portable tracker. "Looks like you get your wish," he said, "She's heading for the old volcano. Wait, we're getting an ID, no way." Draco took the tracker from the officer and saw Lilo's ID on the screen. He turned and said, "Matt, an explanation please?" So Matt, with some reluctance, told Draco about the Amulet. Draco slapped his forehead and said, "Not again! I thought you said that Amulet was as magical as a corkscrew!" "That's what I thought too, until Frostbite called me." Draco paused, "Frostbite? How can he call you? I thought the Fentons lived in another world." "Actually, it turns out that it's actually a part of this planet we haven't visited yet. Strange, huh?" Matt looked Draco straight in the eye and said, "Look, I don't know how that Amulet ended up here, but we got it one time, we can do it again. The next stop after this will be Draco Island. I'll personally drop the Amulet off there."

Dragon Lilo flew onwards, over the forest until she landed at a large cave in the mountainside. She sniffed around the cave. It looked uninhabited, so she curled up in there to sleep. Going on a rampage like that can be rather exhausting. Chang landed at the cave mouth. "Aw, are you lost, little one?" she said, all fake concern. She knew how violent an amulet-user could be and how they were touchier than an ogre. Lilo sat up and growled, showing several sharp teeth and ghostly flames flickering between them. "Don't be alarmed," said Chang, "I'm here to help you with your powers. Think of me as your dragon godmother."

* * *

There's another chapter. Things do not look good for Lilo. Being trapped in ghost dragon form is one thing, but Chang is really bad news. Hopefully the gang will be able to find a way to solve this. To find out if they do, stay tuned for the next update. Please review.


	3. Return Ruckus

**Retrieval Saga**

**Dragon's Temptation**

**Chapter 3: Return Ruckus**

Since Lilo has fled to the mountain, the crew had been radioing to the NSC for support, since most of their gear had been trashed. Matt was sitting to the side, looking extremely depressed. He was sitting by himself for a while when Draco came over. "Come on, Matt. I think I might have figured out where Lilo has gone. She was flying towards the mountains and there's not that many places large enough for a dragon her size to hide." Matt just continued to look down, "It's my fault. This is all my fault. It was on board for weeks. I should have guessed." "No one had any idea what it really was, not even me. But beating yourself up about it is not going to change the past. The only way to get over it is to find Lilo and remove that Amulet." Matt nodded. "Yes, yes, reminds me, we got a new sensor array," he said as an alarm rang. "Alert. Magic energy buildup in sector 15-B, critical mass in 1.5 hours." Matt looked at Draco, "That's never good."

Suddenly Matt's communicator rang and he answered it, "Hello?" "Matt, we've got a problem," said Chip's voice, "I've done some research on the Amulet and it turns out that it becomes unstable when it's in the living world for too long. Not to mention that has similar origins to the Fang Stone so something like that could happen when it grows critical." Matt's graphic imagination conjured up a mushroom cloud. "How big an explosion?" asked Matt, dreading the answer. "It'll be like a ton of C-4, and if it doesn't kill whoever's hit, then there's a good chance of them being transformed some way." Matt looked like he'd been kicked in the gut. "Well, why are we standing here? Let's go," he said. "Fortunately, I've added a magic identifier to your tracker," said Chip over the communicator, "it won't always give an exact identity, but it should pick up ones you know already." Matt checked it and said, "Guys, you aren't going to believe who's with Lilo."

Draco extended his wings and said, "One express rout to dragon cave, coming up." "I hope my stomach can take this," said Matt as he and Stitch grabbed Draco. Matt was more worried about his own stomach and tried not to think how deep into the ground he'd go if his grip slipped. When they landed at the cave, however, they spotted of all people, Silvia and NegaMorph. "Oh no. As if we didn't have enough to worry about," said Matt. "Don't you guys have some Viral Clones to bother or something?" said Draco. "For your information, all the Viral Clones on the island have been gathered up, so there's nothing left to look for," said NegaMorph, "We're here to pay back that witch who manipulated us in New York." "How'd you know Chang was here?" asked Stitch. Silvia waved her tracker and said, "Detected her signal." Matt shrugged, "Fine, but even look at us in a funny way and I blast you to the Stone Age, sister or not." He sneaked to the cave mouth and peered inside…

He quickly swung back to avoid being burned by ghostly flames. "That's not good," he said. "LILO, IT'S US, YOU'RE NOT WELL, JUST TAKE THE AMULET OFF!" he yelled round the corner and peered in to see the smirking form of Chang and what looked like a rapper monkey behind a snarling Lilo. "What do you know, there really was a dancing monkey," said Draco. "That's Bananas B to you, wallet skin," said the monkey. "Wallet? My skin's far more useful than that. Not that you could take it off anyways." "Oh, I think that can be arranged easier than you think," said Chang, her staff crackling with power. Matt pulled out a Quad-4 rifle. "I wonder what this would do to her?" he said with an evil smirk, pressing the button with a green orb on it. Chang quickly erected a force field that the rifle's blast dissipated into. "Nice attack, but not enough without magic to back it up. I, on the other hand, have a lot of magical power on my side. Such as my goddaughter." She snapped her fingers and Lilo roared loudly.

"Bloody hell," said Matt, raising his own plasma shield in time. "I wasn't aiming at you," he added as the rock the ricochet had hit dropped on Chang's staff, smashing the end. Lilo, however, came out of the cave, looking extremely angry. Chang was annoyed, but far from defeated. "Now, who to start on?" she mused. She surveyed them and finally said, "How about that mutant freak who ruined my master's plans?" "What did you call me?" demanded NegaMorph, but he didn't have enough time to unleash his rage as Lilo's head reached down to eat him. Fortunately, NegaMorph caught her incoming jaws, but couldn't break free. "Ew, ectoplasmic drool." Matt drew his ion staff and charged Chang. "Try me, ya wacko," he yelled, ignoring Draco's warnings. A blast of magic spun him like a top and onto his butt for a second, more then long enough for Chang to transform. "You think sprouting wings is going to scare us?" said Silvia. "No, but we dragons can do much more than that," said Chang and then she spat a fireball at the ceiling, causing several stalactites to fall on Matt and Silvia. Matt blasted the rocks apart and fired a storm of bolts machine-gun style into Chang. "Your magic can't last forever," he snarled, continuing the barrage as Silvia caught on and added her own lightning.

Stitch tried to join in the fighting, but Bananas B kept intercepting him. "Think of crashing the party, blue dog?" he said mockingly. Stitch snarled and tried to swipe at the monkey, but he kept hopping out of the way. Then Bananas snuck around behind Stitch and hogtied him. "That oughta keep that mutt in the doghouse for a while," he said to himself. But then Stitch snapped his restraints and went into alien mode. "Oh, peanuts," muttered Bananas before he started running away from an angry Stitch.

Matt finally saw the shield start to waver, "Care to surrender? We gotta nice cozy rubber room for you on Kryos." But then something turned Matt's attention away from Chang. "Can somebody help me?" grunted NegaMorph, "I don't want to know whether I'm capable of being digested by ghosts." Matt also noticed that the Amulet on Lilo's neck was flashing red. 'Alert, critical mass in 30 seconds,' said his visor HUD. "That's not good. Next time, Tang," he said, getting her name wrong on purpose before running towards Lilo. "Where are you going?" asked Silvia as she followed. "Ever seen Armageddon?" said Matt, linking his visor reading to Silvia's wristcomp. Silvia looked at them and quickly moved to help. "About time you came," said NegaMorph, "Were you just going to sit back and let me get eaten?"

Matt tried to blast the chain on the Amulet, but to no effect, the overload simply absorbing the blast. Lilo turned her attention and fired a ghost ray at the two hybrids, much to Chang's amusement. "This is quite amusing, if only I had a camera. Oh, and one more thing…" She quickly turned around and pinned Draco to the wall as he was sneaking up on her. "As much as Bananas' suggestion intrigues me, I'd think I'd prefer to have you stuffed and mounted, or at least your head." Matt ducked another blast and said, "Calm her down Chang or we're all dead. That thing goes off, we'll be practically vaporized, including you." "Oh, that changes things, Bananas?" The hip-hop monkey was scrambling to escape Stitch and ran up Chang's body to her shoulder. "Why bother with trying to destroy you fools when the Amulet can do it for me? Farewell, fools!" In a flash of light, she and Bananas B disappeared.

Matt swore very graphically, mostly describing what he'd do to Chang if he ever found her again. "She'll never let us get near," said Silvia, dodging a ghost ray. "Easy for you to say," said NegaMorph as his arms quivered under the pressure of Lilo's jaw strength. "The chain's not where the magic is," said Draco, "It's in the actual Amulet." "Why didn't you say so?" growled NegaMorph as he lashed out with his tail and struck the link that held the flashing gem on. Matt grabbed it just in time and yelled as it hissed loudly in his grip. It flew into the air again. "Er, run?" he suggested. Stitch quickly grabbed Lilo, who had reverted to human form after the gem was snapped off, and quickly ran for the entrance. "No time for that," said Draco and he quickly started digging into the floor. Stitch and NegaMorph pitched in and in about 10 seconds, they had a pit that went several feet down into the rock. Matt and Silvia looked at each other and ran for the ditch, just as the Amulet hit the dirt and cracked.

An orange wave of fire was visible spilling over the top of the pit, shocking the people in time. The wave of energy went straight out the cave mouth several feet, making any attempts to escape that way futile. As soon as it diminished, the three experiments popped their heads out. "How did you know that it would explode that way?" asked NegaMorph. "You've obviously never been inside a chimera's cave." "That depends; are you referring to a genetic chimera or that lion-goat-snake chimera?"

The sounds of moans quickly drew their attention. They looked and saw Matt and Silvia lying on the ground, their clothes partially burned away by the blast. "I feel terrible," said Matt. "You don't look so good either," said Draco. "No, it's worse, I feel terrible on the inside," said Silvia. Matt got up and doubled over in pain. 'Alert, severe genetic damage detect-detect-detected,' said his damaged inhibitor. Matt managed one more line, watching as Silvia suffered the same discomfort. "This… isn't my week," he said before passing out. "Oh my," said Stitch. "This is where they get ya," said NegaMorph. "Get ya?" said Draco. Suddenly Matt's body shifted to hybrid form on its own accord. A second later, there was the sound of crackling bones as spines started growing up and down his back. "Oh, it got me." Matt and Silvia's bodies continued to distort and grow larger. Suddenly their fur started dropping out, leaving scales of similar colors in their place. "This is getting pretty creepy," said Draco. "Eh, I've seen worse," said NegaMorph. It finally stopped on two familiar forms, at least to anyone who'd been in NYC a few months ago. Their new forms looked a lot like their dragon forms, only they were slightly bigger and had a lot more spines on their backs. There were also antennas on their foreheads and their ears were noticeably longer. A more noticeable feature was that they each had four arms instead of two. The three experiments looked at each other, not sure what to do with the new hybrid dragons.

Matt came round on the North Star, in the med bay again. He raised his hand, spotted the difference, and groaned. "Oh crud, not again, the Ancients must hate me." He then noticed Chip was sitting nearby, apparently waiting for him to wake up. "I can imagine what you're thinking right now," said Chip, "but fortunately, I have some good news. You should be able to still use your hybrid form, but I think your experiment and dragon forms have fused permanently." Matt groaned, "It's not fair. Commander Leyton's gonna freak." He held his head in his hands and eventually asked, "How's Lilo?" "She's fine, came back around after we got back. She's more worried about you, especially if you can become human again, at least in appearances." Matt concentrated and was rewarded with his human form. He then noticed something missing, "No inhibitor, that's a plus." "Maybe, maybe not," said Chip, "We had to take it off so your body could recover properly. I think you need to be analyzed before you decide whether to go without one." Matt merely nodded then closed his eyes. "I swear, Chang. Someday, I'm going to get even with you for this."

Meanwhile, Chang and Bananas B were in a different part of the world. Chang was still fuming about the loss of the Amulet. "That's twice now that those imbeciles have interfered with my plans," she muttered. "Eh, forget them," said Bananas, "There are more important people to get revenge on." "True, but that Amulet could have been of great use. It could have helped me with freeing the Dark Dragon or-" A thought seemed to occur to her. "Bananas," she said, "you wouldn't happen to have any photographs of what these two new dragon forms look like, would you?" Bananas B fished them out of his pocket and handed them over. "You'd be surprised what gremlins would do for you with a little bribery," he mentioned. Chang looked at the photos, particularly of Matt's. "This could prove useful. I'm sure the Dragon Council would be interested in sending these two invitations."

* * *

There's the third chapter and the end of the first part of the story. The next story will take place in a different background with a different plot. You'll definitly want to see what it is.

Sorry it took me so long to put it up. I haven't felt much motivation to updating this recently. It would probably help if someone might give me a review. It does have to a speech of praise or anything, just to make me feel like working on it more. Anyways, I'll be updating very soon, probably within the next two days. Please review or you'll not see much after that for a while.


	4. Game On

**Retrieval Saga**

**Dragon's Temptation**

**Chapter Four: Game On**

The North Star flew through the fog on the Hudson River, towards a supposedly abandoned warehouse. "Well, nice to NYC again. They seemed to have fixed everything from our last visit," said Chris. He was confused why they'd been summoned to NYC in the first place, given that Matt had only just discharged from the med-bay.

Techo steered the ship into landing position and looked over at Draco. "Best tell Lynch we're here. Wonder what the big fuss is about?" he said to the dragon experiment. Draco went down to Matt's room. It sounded like someone was in there. Matt had been edgy ever since the mountain explosion, but explosions were known to cause that.

"Matt, you okay?" asked Draco as he opened the door. Matt was hunched over his bed, facing away from Draco. "Er, we landed now, we're ready to disembark." "What if I don't want to disembark?" said Matt in a harsh voice. "You have to, they called for you specifically." "Well I don't feel like going!" snapped Matt. Draco backed away, noticing Matt's irises were red. Matt seemed to shake out of it after a second, his eyes turning normal again. "Urgh, Sorry, dunno what's wrong with me. Well, best go, I have a feeling this is about that damn amulet," he said.

The feeling was shared by the rest of the crew as they climbed out and into the building. They went into an elevator that took them several floors down. "Well, one thing's for certain," said Draco, "it can't be magical, otherwise THE DRAGON COUNCIL WOULD BE HERE!" The last part was said in a scream of surprise to see the five council members sitting at the table.

Matt was also surprised to see an unhappy Silvia there too, flanked by four guards with Quad-4's. "Believe me. I have no wish to be here either," she said, seeing Matt's expression. Leyton looked equally unhappy. "Glad you arrived. These lost were about to explain why I have the empire's top agents in my base as well as you. What's this about? Please tell me we're not working with Silvia again, not after last time. I don't think NY will survive it this time," he said with a grin.

"As your friend can tell you," said Councilman Andam, "the Dragon Games are coming up." The Dragon what?" said Matt. "It's sorta like a dragon's version of the Olympics," explained Draco, "I was thinking of bringing Contrinus to it." "Okay, so what does that have to do with us?" Silvia sighed. "Do I really have to explain? How do you keep winning?" she said angrily, causing the guards to tense up. "The council wanted a Nullspace dragon, given the huge amount of dangers there. You and Silvia are the candidates," said Leyton. "Us? Isn't there any other dragons you could ask?" "As far as we know, you're the only two of your kind that exists. Dragons aren't that much into space travel," said Councilor Kulde.

Matt sighed. "I can understand asking me, but Silvia? Do you remember the tiny fact THAT SHE WORKS FOR EVIL?" he yelled, not really taking the council seriously, in his mind they weren't bossing him around. "I'm afraid we really must insist," said the Dragon of Asia. "I believe that Mr. Lynch is MY employee, Miss…" said Leyton

"Gnahc," said the Dragon of Asia. "Gnahc? That's an unusual-" "Yes, so I've been told so. Did I forget to mention that the winner of the games will be handsomely rewarded with a large trophy made and filled with leprechaun gold?" The lowering of the room's temperature signaled that bribing mercs was not a good career move. Leyton spoke up next. "No need to bribe, Mr. Lynch is going," he said. Matt stared in shock. "Hey, wait a sec…" he started as Gnahc smirked. Leyton added "Along with me and my own team," causing Gnahc's smile to vanish at warp speed.

"Now wait just a minute," said Silvia, "I said nothing about me wanting to-" "What's so special about leprechaun gold anyway?" asked Chris. "It gives its owner very good luck and it's worth a lot too," said Chip. "Which way to the training room?" said Silvia. Matt also heard this and in a surprisingly large lack of self-preservation grabbed Leyton and yelled "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, SIR? PACK!" and was knocked out a second later by Leyton's Ion hammer

--

Later, the North Star was flying 'escort' for Silvia's ship on the way to Draco Island…

NegaMorph looked at Silvia. "You know they're not escorts really. Why do they need to fly with us?" he said, sitting in the co-pilot seat, staring at the lock on warning light flashing, as it had been ever since they'd cleared NY airspace. "There's something about that I should know, it's nagging in the back of my head, what do you think, Dante… Dante?" He looked back and noticed Dante wasn't there. "Dante?" Dante was currently hanging by one leg on the outside of the ship, owing to an incident involving an improperly-closed door. Silvia sighed and sent a crewman to help Dante back inside. "Maybe it's cause we're sworn enemies?" she said sarcastically.

--

Matt was looking at some notes in his quarters when Draco came in. "Yea? What's up?" Matt said, putting down the datapad he'd been reading. "So, do you know what you'll be facing against in the Dragon Games?" asked Draco. "You said it'll be like the Olympics, how hard could it be?" "There's more to that. For instance, how good is your Earth mythology?" Matt shrugged. "I just follow 'If it tries to eat me, blow it up', worked so far," said Matt with a grin before seeing Draco's expression. "Is average," he said

"I was expecting something along those lines, so I'm going to assign you a trainer as soon as we land. And I happen to know the right guy." "Who says I need a trainer?" said Matt. "What's the best way to avoid a fight with a three-headed dog?" quizzed Draco. Matt said promptly "Have the world's largest squeaky toy and let 'em fight over it," he said, jokingly.

"Yeah, you're going to need a trainer," said Draco. "I've managed to get through tougher situations without knowing what I'm up against. Besides, these aren't wild encounters; they're in a controlled area. What could happen?" Draco showed some of the accidents from a few previous games. Matt just stared. "Ooook...how good is this trainer of yours?" he said, looking at a picture of a creature that reminded him of 'Slughead' Murphy from L.A division.

"Don't worry, he's one of the best," said Draco. "Can I see a pic?" said Matt. Draco handed the photograph over. As soon as Matt saw Jake's pic, he said, "We can't lose…" with a grin. The intercom beeped and Wilson said, "Yo, we're almost there, wherever here is." The ships had been forced to fly into the dimensionally-unstable Devil's Triangle region. "Draco? I can understand why Draco Island's in the Devil's Triangle, but what makes all the ships and stuff vanish, we know it's not Nullspace."

"Well, there's actually a number of reasons," said Draco, "most of them mystical. For instance, there are several sea serpent nests there." Matt stared. "You're joking, what else?" he said, with a grin. He'd loved the old disappearance theories. "I think there are rumors of Atlantean tech creating disturbances, but I don't know much about that," said Draco. Matt shrugged. "The ancients left tons of junk around, probably old AA guns," he said. "Wilson came back on the line. "Hey guys, we're about to land. Silvia's already landed." Matt sighed. "Well...let's go watch me get eaten by the slug thing," he said.

--

The crew, Leyton, and his men were impressed by the island. "It's like Capella V." said one avian recruit happily as the rest of the crew looked around before frowning as Dante's men, flanked by Silvia's droid guards were spotted. "Shame about the neighbors," said Talia. "Nice place," said Matt, "Kinda like a resort." "Don't get any ideas," said Chip, "We're here for a different reason. Namely to win that cup, even if it means teaming up with those creeps." "Speaking of which, what's with Dante?" Dante's face was really red-looking and he was staggering around. "Kinda looks like he's been hanging upside-down for a while," said Chris.

Chris went over. "Hey, you ok? Anyone would think you were outside the ship on the way her--ack!" He said as Dante seemed to snap and started choking him till NegaMorph dragged them apart. "Seems Dante had a bad day," said Matt as Dante started hitting NegaMorph instead, giggling slightly. Contrinus was watching with interest. "Do mercenaries do that kind of thing often?" she asked Kala. "The ones we keep meeting seem to," said Kala.

Leyton was laughing his head off at Dante's misfortune, especially when Dante was thrown into the sea by an impressive left hook from Nega, even Matt and co clapped. "That had to be at least 30 feet, uh oh, here's those council dudes," said Techo. "It is good to see you have arrived," said Councilor Omina. Councilor Gnahc's attention was drawn to Contrinus. "Is that a phoenix?" she asked. "Actually, that's my girlfriend, Contrinus," said Draco. "You're dating a phoenix?" asked Councilor Kukulkhan. "Genetic experiment, actually," said Contrinus, showing her clawed hands and third leg. Leyton nodded. "Hi there, me and my men will try to stay out from your... feet. Dammit!" he said, noticing that his men had already headed off to explore. It was Silvia n co's turn to laugh.

"I've never in a magical place before," said Contrinus as she perched in a tree, "there was the Ghost Zone, but that's more paranormal than magical." "Oh, magic's not that uncommon," said Draco as he perched in the same tree, "Cause when we're together, there's magic in the air." Contrinus giggled while Chip, who was sitting at the base of the tree, rolled his eye.

Meanwhile, Matt was wandering around where most of the regional dragons were, getting funny glares. Ever since NYC, the CPS had not been very popular. "Sheesh, you'd think this was Gorgon Island, not Draco Island," said Matt. Matt finally lost it. "Ok, what's your beef? Who wants a go?" he said angrily, his eyes flashing red. "Feeling a little tension, traveler?" Matt turned around and saw NegaMorph standing nearby. "I'm just sick of being stared at like a freak," said Matt. NegaMorph frowned and said, "Don't use that word, it's pretty offensive among a lot of people." Matt shrugged. "They're just annoying me. I haven't done a thing, right?" he said saying the last word to a young dragon from India. The Indian dragon backed away from Matt until he accidentally backed into NegaMorph. He took one look at him and ran screaming, "Demons!"

Matt waved after him. "Bye-Bye," he called before realizing the other dragons looked rather angry now. "Er, NegaMorph? I think we should apologize?" he suggested, having no wish to get injuries before the trials even started. "Apologize for what?" said NegaMorph, "We didn't do anything. Except get miscatergorized." Matt glared at him then at the approaching dragons. "Er, he doesn't mean that," he said, putting his hand over NegaMorph's mouth before he could say anything. NegaMorph kept talking through another one of his mouths. "Seriously, we were just standing here, minding our own business and some kid called us demons. I'm not a demon, even if I might have a slight resemblance to one. Not sure about you though."

Matt actually went pale at this before saying to the nearest dragon, "You're gonna hit us now, aren't you?" readying a concussion plasma orb behind his back. NegaMorph finally noticed the crowd, "Whoa, I thought the anger vibes were coming from myself. What are they all mad about?" Matt looked at NegaMorph. "One guess, brainiac," he said, before being forced to duck a punch from one of the three dragons there. "Odd, my aura doesn't normally provoke this much aggression," said NegaMorph as he jumped to avoid a kick, "Not intentionally, that is." Matt grabbed the fist of one and nutted him before pushing him into the path of a punch aimed at NegaMorph's back. "Play nice," he said. The third dragon grabbed Matt from behind. "Why'd they let you on the island? You're not welcome here."

Matt braced himself for claws raking his flesh, but another set of claws grabbed the dragon's hand. "Hey, no fighting outside the arena," said Jake. "What makes you think you can order me around, American Dragon?" said the dragon. "If you get caught fighting, you'll be disqualified," said Jake. The dragons growled, dropped Matt and NegaMorph, and left. Matt rubbed his neck. "Long time no see, Jake, nice timing," he said happily, shaking Jakes hand before looking at NegaMorph. "Thanks for the help back there, maybe you're not so bad..." he began before almost wilting under NegaMorph's death-glare. "Oook, maybe you are, but thanks anyway," he added.

"Don't mention it," said NegaMorph, "EVER." NegaMorph then walked off, muttering, "I could have taken those guys." Matt sighed. "Still the same, anyways, I take it the NYC incident didn't make me and the crew very popular," he said walking alongside Jake, noticing a few more stares at him. "Is it the guns?" he whispered.

"Probably because of the ruckus you guys unintentionally caused when you brought the Fang Stone here in the first place," said Jake. "Like how was I supposed to know it was a magical artifact?" said Matt, "Never mind, don't answer that." "And I think there might be some people who disagree with your… breeding," added Jake sadly.

Matt looked at the dragons before turning back at Jake. "Why should they care? I didn't exactly ask for what happened," he said gloomily before changing the subject. "So... what's first on the training list?" "I think we ought to work on your reflexes first," said Jake. "That shouldn't be too hard, I've built up my reflexes a lot over the years. Mostly to avoid pain." "Funny, I said the same thing when Gramps started me on it." Matt shrugged. "You didn't have people trying to shoot you and weirdo's sending monsters after you," he said in a matter-of-fact voice.

"True, but skateboarding requires a lot of moving around things." "Skateboard, schmateboard. I think I can manage to keep something from slipping out from under me- WHOA!" The last part was when Matt stepped on a discarded banana peel and fell onto his back. Matt didn't get up but raised a hand. "Don't say anything... not even a chuckle," he said getting up again. "Guess I do need a refresher. How did Lao Shi train your reflexes?"

A few minutes later, Matt and Jake were in a training room that had several wooden posts that could spin around and whack you with their wooden limbs. Matt went up to one. "These don't look too..." he began and lost his senses five minutes later, "Ouch," he said, looking at the still-spinning post, "Ok...I need ALOT of work."

--

Meanwhile, in a dark cave, Chang and Bananas were having an important conversation. "And stop leaving your banana peels around," said Chang. Er, came a bit too early. Let's fast-forward a bit. "All the preparations are complete," said Chang, "All we need is the assistance of a particular dragon, and I know just the one." Banana B shrugged. "You sure? That guy seems a bit... unhinged. What bout the other one? That 'Silvia' babe?"

"Have you not noticed the coloring of Matt's new dragon form?" said Chang. Bananas B nodded, saying, "Now that you mention it, it does kind of look like-" "The Dark Dragon. So it must be destiny that he be one to assist our plan. Besides, he was more of a pest than her last time." "Suit yourself," said the monkey, "Just so long as I don't have to go anywhere near him." "As a matter of fact," said Chang, "there is one very important task I have for you." She held out a black orb with a slight red tinge to it, "This is to be give to Matt." Bananas looked at the Soul Shade. "What about his buds? That Draco guy'll spot a Soul Shade a mile off." "Do not worry about him, I have a plan to deal with him," said Chang

--

Matt's training was going as well as could be expected, which wasn't good judging by the amount of bruises he had by now. "I think my spleen's exploded," he moaned, injecting his last Med-Nanites. Draco shrugged his shoulders and said, "You'll get used to it. I guess I'm hardier than you. When I trained with those posts, I could go halfway through without getting whacked." "Easy for you," said Matt, "You have a snake's spine."

Matt looked at the posts. "This is how mercs do it," he said and made the first post explode, making Jake and Draco jump. "Yo, does he do this alot?" said Jake. "Do griffins hate horses?" said Draco rhetorically. Matt was actually taking the second post on normally. "So... ouch..,. what's the... gah... first task?" he said as he fought the post and lost.

"Just a fight against a magical creature. Nothing someone who knows about magical creatures can't handle," said Jake. Matt stopped dead, a mistake as the post thwacked him across the room. "Erm, the only mythical things I ever fought were the Doom Weapons, do they count?" he said, picking himself up. "They're pretty tough, but kind of generic when it comes to defeating," said Draco. Matt nodded. "Yea, Chris got one with a hose," he said. "Wonder what I'll get?"

--

Matt and Jake were headed to the Arena. "So... what did you have to fight?" asked Matt, listening to what sounded like electrical strikes. "Silvia's having fun by the sounds," he added. "From what I heard, she's being pretty aggressive with her opponent," said Jake. Suddenly there was an extra-loud crackling followed by a cry of disagreement from the crowd. "10 point reduction for electrocuting your opponent," called the announcer. "Sounds like she overdid it," said Jake, "Yep, that's Chloe." They eventually walked by her marching off, looking really in bad humor. "Hey Silvia, what did-" "Go jump in the ocean!" she snapped. "Definitely Chloe under there," said Matt.

The two of them walked into the Arena and proceeded through the lower floors where the competitors were supposed to go. As they walked through, they chanced across the Dragon Council having a discussion. "Are you sure about this?" said Councilor Kulde, "Those creatures are extremely xenophobic and he's about as strange as he comes, if you don't count that blob thing he travels with." "From what I've heard, this thing seems to fit in his area of experience," said Gnahc, "I'm sure he'll do fine." "Why do I have a really bad feeling about this?" muttered Matt.

Matt was lead into the arena, which reminded him of those old roman gladiator arenas. "Ok," he muttered and remembered he had to do the entire task in dragon form just in time. "So... what am I fighting?" he said He looked around and saw what looked like a red ball of flesh. "That's it? This'll be easier than-" Suddenly a mouth full of fangs opened in the front and a large eye opened above it. Several eyestalks popped out of its head as it floated off the ground. "Oookay, what the heck is that thing?"

The thing grinned at Matt. "So you're the one, I thought you'd be taller. Oh well, straight to business," it said and with that, fired several beams out its eye stalks, almost blasting Matt to smithereens. One of the beams did hit his leg however, covering it in ice. "HEY! NOBODY TOLD ME I'D BE FIGHTING Z-CLASS DEMONS!" he yelled, flying around as many of the elemental beams as he could as the Beholder chuckled, obviously enjoying itself.

Matt kept going around the stadium, always one foot ahead of being burned, zapped, petrified, or frozen. "How do you beat this guy?" he said, "He's got eyes in the back of his head. Come to think of it, he's just a head covered with eyes." Then he spotted a fresh lemonade stand and got an idea. He landed, grabbed all the lemons, and said quickly, "Sorry, I will pay you back later, thank you!" Matt threw the lemons straight at the beholders central eye, only to have them incinerated in mid air. "Please, up your game. I want a good fight out of you," said the Beholder before hitting Matt with a white beam that made him hit the wall hard enough to crack it.

Leyton, who along with the crew and Jake, were watching, stood up. "This is madness. How's he supposed to even dent that thing?" he said furiously as Matt slid down the wall, dazed.

The Beholder kept blasting beams at Matt, but it didn't seem to be putting too much effort into it. "Well, this is getting very tiresome. Perhaps there's something better to do outside," it said. It turned and fired a laser beam into the wall and then floated through. Leyton stood up in shock. "Ok, this is out of hand," he said, speaking into his comm. A few of the 'spectator's' drew weaponry and headed into the tunnels surrounding the arena. Matt, however, flew straight after it. "Hey meatball! You're fighting me!" he yelled, spitting some plasma fire at the Beholder's back, only to nearly be blasted in half by an answering volley. "Where's Leyton's guys when I need em? I can't take this guy alone," he said before turning to where his wrist-comp would be, only to remember it wasn't there in dragon form. "Nuts," he said. "Er... about the 'meatball' comment... I meant it in a nice way," he said as the Beholder approached

The Beholder's main eye lit up and said, "I better neutalize your magic before finishing off the rest of you." Matt gulped and thought franticly, "Uh, there's a tick between two of your eyes." The beholder actually fell for this, going cross-eyed, quite impressive in viewing and said, "Which ones?" only to be sent flying by a plasma blast from Matt. "My plasmas not magic smeghead," he said. "It's going to take more than that," said the Beholder, but then Matt punched it in the main eye. "How about a couple more black eyes?" said Matt.

Suddenly he was upside down; an eye stalk had lassoed his leg. "Er, ok then," he said as the Beholder opened its mouth. Luckily, Matt's karma appeared to be having a good day as a fireball hit the Beholder in the back, causing it to spin and drop Matt. (If you can call accidentally being thrown into a wall as he was let go in mid-spin 'dropped'.)

"How about getting a double butt-kicking, dragon-style?" said Jake as he landed. "Wishful thinking," said the Beholder, his main eye swelling up, "my kind has long evolved beyond the need for behinds." "Screw the rules." said Matt, turning human again long enough to attach an anti-matter grenade to the beholders front. It wouldn't kill but it'd definitely do more then singe. He turned dragon again and flew up to Jake's height. "Nobody uses me for a toothpick, ever," he said as the grenade went off.

The Beholder roared in pain, several of his eyes blinded, but far from harmless. "I will kill you all!" "Do these things have a weak spot?" asked Matt. "I'm not sure; the only part where they don't have eyes is their mouth." Matt shrugged. "Good as any, do I get penalized for vaporization?" he asked, dodging some wild blasts from the now-furious Beholder.

"At this point, I think you'll pass just for stopping it," said Jake. "That's good to know," said Matt. He swooped down, grabbed a cinnamon bun from a snack stand, and stuffed a plasma grenade. He then flew towards the Beholder and said, "Open your mouth and close your eyes and you will get a big surprise." He threw the bun into the Beholder's mouth, who licked his lips and said, "Mmm, cinnamon." Matt flew by Jake. "Fly... now..." he said. Jake took cover round a corner only to have Matt fly by. "Further please," he said in passing. The Beholder hiccupped, crossed its eyes again, and exploded, covering the corridor in Beholder slime, which was a shame as Dante's men, led by the man himself had just turned the corner.

"Okay, this has got to be the worst thing I've ever been in contact with," said Dante as he and his men desperately tried to get rid of the slime on their bodies. Matt and Jake peered round the corner. "Green suits you," said Matt cheekily and ducked back as Dante threw a rock at him.

--

It was later, Matt and Silvia, along with a goo covered Dante and Jake were back in front of the Council. "I know we're gonna get the bill for the hole in the arena, I just know it," whispered Matt to Jake. "Normally, you have failed your trial, but seeing that you have stopped the Beholder before it could hurt anyone, we're letting you pass. However, we would like to have a word with the one who suggested using a creature that's known to be a great threat to magical community for this." Silvia said. "I would too, for as long as it takes for NegaMorph to infect them," she said venomously. Dante just shrugged.

--

As the two rivals headed back to their ships, three dragons were waiting. The leader, named Alan, looked around. "Wonder why Gnahc wanted to see us here?" he said. Suddenly a monkey wearing a page's robe appeared. "Sorry Gnahc can't see you, but something came up. So she sent me as a messenger." The monkey pulled out a black ball. "Gnahc knows you want to get rid of the hybrid. This'll make life a bit easier for ya," he said handing a glove then the ball to Alan. "Th-this is a soul shade." said one of Alan's friends, Tim.

"I had a feeling you'd say something like that, so did Chang, which is why she prepared these." The monkey quickly threw three more balls at the dragons. Before the dragons could respond, they were covered in what appeared to be black smoke. When it cleared, they looked like darker versions of themselves with red eyes. Bananas grinned evilly. "Well? You got a job to do," he said to them.

* * *

There's another chapter. Sorry it took me so long to put it up. But fortunately I'm prepared for the next two parts, which I'll be posting tomorrow and the day after. See what Chang's plan involves in the next chapter. Please review.


	5. Midnight Visit

**Retrieval Saga**

**Dragon's Temptation**

**Chapter Five: Midnight Visit.**

It was night on Draco Island and most of the two ships' crews were asleep with the exception of a few sentries. Private Norris was bored as a result. "Damn night watch. What's gonna happen?" he muttered before hearing movement in the darkness. He shone his torch to see three dragons. "Hey, this is private, get outta here," he said, leveling his blaster. The three dragons glanced at him and then Norris thought he saw them position their hands in some formation. Suddenly he was surrounded with similar dragons. "Holy shit, control?" he managed before one of them stuck their clawed hand through his chest. "Norris? Norris? What's gong on out there?" said Dante's voice, the two crews having decided to watch each others backs for the games' duration. The rest of the crew were peacefully unaware of the danger that was outside. The dragons and their doppelgangers started searching for a way inside.

Most of the doppelgangers fell to some of the traps that the crew had set up... and man were they inventive. Tim sighed as another chi doppelganger was blown up. "This is getting us nowhere, Alan. Let's just take the ramp," he said. Alan nodded and they pried open the ramp. They tried to do it quietly, but they couldn't keep it from emitting a few small mechanical shrieks. The inside of the ship was deserted except for a few maintenance droids checking the Makta APC which were ignored. The only weird thing that made the three dragons pause was when Morph went by, sleepwalking. "Hmm, I smell bacon," he muttered. He then bumped into a dragon's tail and said, "Mmm, sandwich." He then opened his mouth and made a sizeable chomp on it. Tim winced. "Nnngh," he said suppressing a yell before saying. "Can we kill him before we go?" he asked, eyes watering as they arrived at Matt's quarters. Matt was asleep inside, holding a ion blaster in his hand and his deactivated staff in the other. What really made the three pause was he was sleeping with eyes open, though still completely zoned out.

Alan took out the Soul Shade and started lowering onto Matt's pillow. Suddenly, Morph apparently went into another phase of his dream as he suddenly stood upon Tim's tail and took out his Pest-o-Mallet and shouted, "Have at thee, vile fiend! Thou shalt not harm the lady Bubblegum!" Matt woke up to see a Soul Shade an inch from his mouth and pressed his gun to the bottom of Alan's mouth. "Oh... you'll wish you hadn't done that," he said, only to have to roll to the side of the bed as the third dragon, Andre, shot a fireball at him. Morph was currently bopping Tim on the head with his Mallet. It was apparently was quite effective as Tim's head had more lumps than a bag of coal. He was also swaying somewhat dizzily. "Get...him off...ooooh, nice pixies," said Tim before falling snout down with a crunch, his Soul Shade deciding to jump ship at that moment, only to be malleted as well. Matt was struggling with Andre, and winning. He was about to stun the dragon when he heard Alan. "Stop...er...or the blob gets it...OW! Stop hitting me, hostages don't hit their kidnapper." he said, apparently holding the still-sleeping Morph.

The Soul Shade that was meant for Matt started to roll of the bed from the force of Tim falling. Alan tried to grab it with his tail, but he ended up tossing it upwards instead. The orb was whacked by Morph's Mallet and started ricocheting off the walls like a demented croquet ball. Andre got up in time to grab it and shove it into Matt's back, causing him to scream in pain. Matt's screaming caused Morph to wake up. He looked around in confusion and said, "Hey, this isn't Pic-a-nic Basket Castle." He noticed Matt and said, "What's up with him?" "He's about to join us in killing you." he said as Matt stopped screaming. Andre walked in front of him. "Did it work?" he said and was blasted across the room by a plasma blast. "Oh, it worked alright," said Matt in a creepily-calm voice. Matt was now a darker version of his new dragon form. "Let's see how much it takes to destroy you," said Matt. Morph, who was obviously scared out of his wits, started screaming. And this was a rather loud scream as it woke up everyone in both ships and several nearby buildings.

Chris appeared to have similar sleeping habits as he nearly blasted Draco in the next bed when he jumped up. The ship, thinking some kind of sonic weapon had gone off was adding its alarm to the racket. "What the hell?" Chris said, seeing the alert coming from Matt's room. He ran out the door in time to see a dragon with red eyes blasted into the wall opposite Matt's door by a plasma beam. Matt flexed his hands. "Oh, it's good to be out of this idiot's subconscious. As thanks, I'll kill you quick," he said, advancing on Alan, the last one currently standing out of the trio. Suddenly Draco rounded the corner and said, "What's that awful wailing? It's give me an earache." Then he noticed Morph, the unconscious Tim, the burnt body of Andre, the cowering Alan, all in Matt's shadow. "OK, I'm going to try to wake up from this nightmare before something bad happens to me." Matt, or whoever was pulling the strings, readied a plasma orb and was about to toss it when his inhibitor beeped. 'Alert...Secondary personality in control...suppressing...' it chimed in a bored way before electrocuting Matt to the floor. Alan took advantage of this to throw Morph into Draco and Chris and fly over their heads. Matt groaned and returned to human form. "Ugh, what happened? What smells like roasting meat?" He looked at Andre's body and looked very sick.

Chris looked at Andre. "He's still breathing, help me get him to the med-bay, bring the other guy too," he said, lifting Andre up gently and almost dropping him as the dragon's Soul Shade tried to leave, only to be blasted by Draco's prism sword. "What the heck was that?" said Matt, who'd been about to add a blast of his own. "Well, you remember when Virustoxico first set those Shadow Clones on us before they fused into NegaMorph?" said Draco. "I am constantly reminded of it," said Matt. "Well, those things are what make up the basis of those Shadow Clones." Matt looked at where it was. "Yikes, didn't one of those things send Draco evil?" he said more to himself then anything before adding out loud. "Is that kid gonna be ok? I didn't mean to blast him that hard," he said, looking as some crew members took Andre to the medical bay. "He'll be fine if we put him in a full-body cast for a couple of weeks," said Chris, "He's just lucky that you aimed at a part that didn't have too many major organs." Matt looked gloomily at the floor. "What about the other one?" he said. A soldier said. "Say's his names Tim, he's doing the old 'I dunno where I am' ploy," he said.

"I don't think he'd be able to remember much," said Chip, "his brain's probably one giant bruise after that whacking. We're just lucky he knows who he is." "Like Morph with that Jimmy Durante thing?" said Techo. "A very annoying example, but yes." Matt sighed and pulled a sleeping bag out the closet. "Well, seeing as my bed's a BBQ at the moment, I'm gonna sleep in the cockpit," he said "Speaking of BBQ, you've got fire breathing training at 7am tomorrow," said Draco.

--

Matt was a bit freaked out by the training. "So...I gotta drink all this sauce?" he said, suspiciously. He'd heard about some of Jake's gramp's training techniques. "It'll pump up your fire power," said Jake. "Yeah, just watch this," said Draco as he drank some and then belched out a 10-foot flame. "The hard part is brushing your tongue afterwards." Matt looked at it and paled. "It says only for use in engine scouring, I'll die," he said.

Just then Chip and Morph walked outside. "That is the last time I'm ever eating Chris's cooking," said Chip. "Ugh, it tasted like fried sneakers," said Morph. Then he noticed the hot sauce bottle and said, "Ooh, cherry soda." Morph drank some before Chip grabbed it. "Let me have some. I need to get that taste from breakfast out." He drank some too, neither apparently being affected. Matt looked at the bottle suspiciously and said, "I thought this was supposed to be a real gut-burner." He took the bottle and drank some. Matt paused for a minute, not feeling the affects yet. He then held up a finger and strolled out down the path and out of sight. A very loud shriek was heard followed by a splash and a hiss.

Matt returned a few seconds later, completely soaked and his face an unnatural shade of red. "How come you guys weren't affected?" he wheezed, smoking trailing from his mouth as he spoke. Suddenly Chip's body turned red and a steam whistle popped out of his head and blew at full blast. Matt looked at Morph, whose head had been reduced to a cinder resembling a used match. "Hi Matt," he said. Matt sighed and called the ship. "Wallis? Yea it's me... bring some of that ice from the canteen down to the training area? Thanks."

--

Leyton, the ship doctor, and Contrinus were looking at the steadily-healing Andre when Tim started blabbering in his sleep. "Th...that's a Soul Shade, Councilwoman...ugh!" he muttered before going back to full sleep. Leyton stared. "Did he just say...?" before walking over and shaking Tim awake. "Who gave you those Shades? Talk," he said. "Give him a minute," said Contrinus, "he still needs time to recover." But Tim winced and said, "Last thing I remember was something about a monkey." "Yep, he definitely needs more rest," said the ship doctor. Leyton, however, looked at Contrinus, "Didn't that Chang lady have a monkey with her on Kauai?"

--

Matt stared out into the arena and ducked back in. "I'm gonna suck, I haven't had these tricks for as long as you guys," he said nervously. Matt suddenly stopped and looked out again. "The hell? That's the commander," he said. It was indeed Commander Leyton talking with the Dragon Council. "...I'm telling you, someone on the Council got those kids to attack our ship..." he said in an exasperated tone. "That's impossible," replied Councilor Andam, "we would never do something like that." "Well they were been used by Soul Shades and they were trying to put one into Lynch. And the one we captured mentioned a monkey, like Chang had." Leyton also added, "...and someone authorised that demon for the last task." Gnahc said, "Do you have any concrete evidence?" Leyton glared. "No, but when those kids recover, I intend to get some." He went off to sit down as Jake and Matt in dragon form came out into the arena. Leyton whispered to Chris, "Get Draco and meet me outside in two minutes... bring Techo."

--

Chris and Techo sat outside the arena as the crowd could be heard enjoying the show. "How come Leyton wants us?" Techo muttered, bored. "Well, ask him." said Chris spotting Leyton come out the exit with Draco in tow. "Okay, boys," said Leyton, "the reason I called you here is because I know Chang's somewhere around here and she's up to something. And that something involves Matt. We're going to check the council's quarters to see if there's anything in there." The quarters were quite good and also guarded. "Look, we're not gonna rob the place, this is an official CPS investigation," said Leyton to the guard. "Where's your pass, old man?" said the guard. Techo winced as he heard this. "Ooooh...bad move, mate," he said as Leyton smiled unnervingly. "Why, here it is," he said and hit the guard on the head with his ion hammer hard enough to drive the poor guy into the ground a bit. Chris poked the gibbering guard. "Subtle... veeery subtle, did you teach Matt?" he said. "Well, I consider him one of our best agents, learned from the best. Now let's start looking," said Leyton, 'accidentally' stepping on the guard's hand as he went inside.

"Let's try this one first," said Leyton, looking at Gnahc's quarters. Draco stared. "You realise that's magically loc…" he began before Leyton blew the wall next to the door apart, "…never mind." Inside was a lot of Oriental stuff, mostly decorations. "Why search here?" asked Draco. "Because Gnahc was the one who really wanted Matt to enter the tournament and she was the one who suggested the Beholder." "Hey guys, what do you make of this?" said Chris. The other two looked and saw what appeared to be a giant boar's head. "I think that supposed to be an Erymanthian Boar," said Draco, "but I never saw on with hinged tusks before." Leyton grinned and said, "Pull the lever, Chris." Chris pulled the lever and a trapdoor opened underneath of Leyton. "WRONG LEVER!" yelled Leyton as he fell down. "Oops," said Chris. A few minutes later, Leyton came back with a kappa gnawing at his leg. "Okay, why does she even have that lever?"

Chris was about to pull the second tusk when a piece of wall slid aside. A monkey in a gold track suit came out and almost fainted when he spotted Leyton and Chris aiming at him and a very angry-looking Draco. "Oh...nuts," said Bananas B. Chris grinned horribly. "That's Chang's buddy. What's in there, monkey boy?" he asked, letting his eyes glow in feral mode for added effect. "Er, my banana stash." "Your banana stash?" said Draco suspiciously. "Hey, squirrels store nuts, monkeys store bananas. Speaking of which, I better be checking on them again." Chris put a round into the floor in front of Bananas, the symbolism obvious. "Allow me and Draco first, sonny," said Leyton before saying to Chris. "If he moves, eat him." Inside were several jars filled with..."Soul shades," exclaimed Draco in disgust. Leyton smiled mirthlessly. "We have a winner," he said. "But why would Gnahc do all this?" asked Draco. "I have a pretty good idea, hand me that shield." Draco handed it over and Leyton wrote 'Gnahc' with the letters reversed. He held it up to a mirror and the reflection spelled out 'Chang'. Draco slapped his forehead. "Of course! I had a feeling 'Gnahc' wasn't a Chinese name. How did that one slip past me?" "Because you're the strongest experiment, not the smartest experiment," reminded Chris. "Speaking of which, I want to Chip here. I want him to be in charge of interrogation," said Leyton as he picked up the monkey. "Why him?" asked Chris. Leyton smiled and said, "Because he hates hip-hop."

"Well, even if she didn't have her staff on her, which is unlikely, she's still a pretty tough dragon. Unless..." Draco rummaged through the 'banana stash' and eventually said, "Jackpot!" He came out with a net made of glowing thread, "Sphinx hair, will cancel out the powers of any dragon caught in it." Leyton grinned. "Guess not even her mates trust her." he said as the arena came into view. Matt had just finished his go and was being scored. Leyton whispered into his wrist com and a few members of the crew took step behind them. "Should we wait until after the games?" asked Draco. "No," said Leyton, "I have a feeling that Chang's going to pull something soon. The sooner we bag her, the better. You got that net? Good. Then follow me." Leyton came up behind Gnahc/Chang just as she was finishing her scoring. "I told you I'd be back with evidence, Ma'am. Why dun ye follow us to the brig like a good traitor," he said to the shock of the other Council Members.

"Leyton, what is the meaning of this?" said Councilor Andam. "I'll show you, Draco?" Draco looked thoughtful and said, "Let's see, basic disguise spell on a dragon should be cancelled out by this." He cast the sphinx hair net over Gnahc/Chang and she revereted to her true form. Leyton smirked like he'd just got a winning hand at poker as his men aimed. "We found your little Shade lab and your pet monkey. Make it easy on yourself," he said. Matt was just as shocked and growled. "You! You caused all this!" he said referring to that first day during the Fang Stone incident and only just restraining himself from attempting to rip Chang apart. Incidentally, Silvia was also trying to get at Chang, but was ironically being held back by NegaMorph. "Silvia, I want to dismember her as much as you, but we need to wait our turn," he said as his limbs were being painfully stretched.

The rest of the two groups' crews also appeared to have disgust, aiming their various weapons of choice till Chang was almost red from the sheer number of laser sights on her. Matt finally snapped and aimed a punch at Chang, only to be grabbed in an armlock and held in front of her. Willis aimed at her "Take it easy...let him go..." he said. "Well it appears you have me," said Chang in a disturbingly calm tone. "Of course we do," said Draco, "that net cancels out all your powers." "Not quite," said Chang as she reached inside her sleeve, "it may cancel out my powers, but it doesn't cancel the powers of the artifacts I have." She pulled out a black orb with glowed with red light. Matt glared, "Like hell you'll escape, not after what you put me and my sis through," he muttered and stamped on her foot, turning with the intent of bashing her silly when the artifact flared and they both vanished.

* * *

Uh oh, this can't be good. Knowing Chang, whatever she's up to is very diabolical. And you'll find out what it is tomorrow. Until then, please review.


	6. Turned About

**Retrieval Saga**

**Dragon's Temptation**

**Chapter Six: Turned About**

After Chang disappeared with Matt, all attention focused on finding out where they went. While others were trying different locating techniques, the crew were trying something more direct by interrogating Bananas B for information about Chang's hideout.

Leyton and Chris were sat opposite the ex-guardian. "Ok, Mr. ..." said Leyton looking at a file before looking confused "Bananas B? It has to be a typo," he muttered before looking back. "The Dragon Council wants to have their own words with ya, I suppose you're lucky we were first. Where did Chang take Capt Lynch? Tell us and I guarantee you'll only be thrown in prison," he said. "You think I spill the beans that easy?" said the monkey, "I don't turncoat every week you know." "From what we've heard you 'turncoat' the minute Chang pointed her staff at her," said Chris. "Say what you want, I'm not saying back."

Leyton sighed. "Ok, have it your way, we tried," he said solemnly and Chris nodded, "Yes, such a shame." He spoke into his comm as they both got up. "Chip? He's all yours. Try not to do anything we wouldn't do." As Leyton and Chris walked out, Chip walked in. "So what's the dealeo with this?" said Bananas, "A couple of tough guys quit beating down on me and they send in a trash can? That's just plain whacked." Chip's hand covered itself in viral electricity as he said, "Did I mention how much I loathe hip-hop?"

Leyton and Chris arrived in the observation room to find Matt's team and Silvia all watching Chip 'interrogate' Bananas. Apparently Silvia had, in a fashion that would have made Matt proud, started a pool on how long it would take for Bananas to drive Chip to bananas. Silvia, grinning, was already collecting off the others. Leyton looked at Chris. "You know... till now I wasn't completely sure Matt was right about Silvia being his sis, but seeing this, I truly believe it now. So, what did you bet?"

"I don't think it'll take too long," said Draco as he cashed in his bet. "What makes you say that?" said Contrinus. "You weren't there when we first met Jake. We left them alone for an hour and what happened, Jake?" "He lost his temper after 15 minutes and trapped me in a playlist of 'Caramelldansen'," said Jake, shuddering with the memory, "It took me days to get that song out of my head." Chris nodded in sympathy. "Sounds nasty," he looked at the fake mirror that allowed vision into the interrogation room. "You think we should go back in there? I can't tell if he's mute from Chip's... methods," said Techo, watching as Bananas fled round the room followed by Chip. "Think he's telling him now?" said Kala. "All around the mulberry bush," said Draco dryly, "you better intervene when he starts zapping."

As it was, Chip eventually had to be held down by two of Leyton's men as Bananas was led to a separate room. "Ready to talk?" said Leyton sweetly before pointing back at Chip, "or would you like another 5 minutes?" "OK, OK, I'll tell you where she's taken him. Just keep that psycho cyborg away from me. He's completely bent around the corner." Leyton's men nearly lost their grip when Chip lunged forward. "I can't stand another minute of his mouth!" yelled Chip, "I'm gonna suture his mouth and then send it to the Sirius system!" Leyton waited as Bananas spilled the proverbial basin and was led away before grinning at Chip. "That was the best act I ever saw... you ever thought of working for NSC intelligence?" "Well, I do enjoy the theater a bit and I've picked a few things from it, but how would you know anything about my acting skills?" Leyton shrugged. "I take it as my job to know," he said looking at the file he'd got. "Chang's at that volcano... isn't that where Draco and Contrinus went?" he said.

---

Matt opened his eyes weakly. Pain had happened in large amounts. "Bloody bootleg teleports... Ow. Did I leave my spleen behind?" he said before looking around. He was in what looked like a chamber in a volcano, judging from the lava. He was also chained to the wall. "Nuts," he muttered when he failed to plasma blast the chains open. "Ah, so my new helper is awake now." Matt turned his head to see Chang in her dragon form along with Dark Alan. "You know what the scariest thing about this is?" said Matt, "Is that it's not totally surprising. Volcanic lairs, chained to the wall, brainwashed henchmen, have you ever done anything original?" Matt then transferred his gaze to Alan. "And you, did you know most guys who turn evil for vengeance are morons?" he said cheekily.

Alan growled and sent a fire blast at Matt. Matt moved to the side a little bit and the fire melted the chain's links. A quick yank and Matt was freed. "Sheesh, you guys are as stereotypical as they- AUGH!" Matt cried out when Chang zapped him with her staff. The blast at first didn't appear to work. "I thought you said it'd work?" Alan said as Matt got his senses back and turned all his attention to Alan who lasted a full thirty seconds before Matt spun him into a wall head-first. "And next on the list..." said Matt, drawing his ion staff and looking at Chang. "You know I don't usually bother with dead only contracts, but seeing as you've been a pain in my butt for months and tried to kill or brainwash and sometimes do both to me and my friends... I think I will make an exception this once," he said.

"My, my," said Chang, "death threats from you? How uncharacteristic. I wouldn't talk murder if I were you. It brings out the darkness in you." "What's that supposed to- AAAAAUGGGHH!" Matt screamed as his entire body rocked with pain. He dropped his ion staff and fell onto the floor. After a minute of violent spasming on the floor, he lay still before his eyes, now blood red, shot open. "Thank god... It's good to be in charge for once," he said in a creepily calm voice for someone who'd just seemed to have had a fit. He got up, grabbing the ion staff. "Who're you, miss?" he said rudely.

"Don't you know?" said Chang, "I'm the one who summoned you to this plane in the first place. The one who had you put in that body." 'Matt' laughed, not his typical comical laugh or his occasional lost-it-again laugh, but a really creepy evil laugh. "If you're referring to that Soul Shade, he was very nourishing, gave me more than enough strength to help get out of containment." 'Matt' looked at Chang at the dazed Alan. "Now, what to do with you two? Burn you or tear you up, decisions, decisions," he said, transforming his hand to his dragon one. Chang quickly realized that this was not the Soul Shade that was controlling Matt's body at the moment. "I presume you are this V-627 I've heard about," she said, trying to delay time long enough for her to think of something. 'Matt' cocked his head. "Who? Oh the new guy, nope, Matt should have listened to his psyche evaluator and not bottled up all that negativity," he said, before, without looking flooring Alan again who had lunged at him, "I'm his, and your, worst nightmare Why are you working with him? You don't seem like a merc." "I am not," said Chang stiffly, "I am Councilor Chang, the right hand commander for the-" "Yatta, yatta, blah, blah, blah, don't give a hoot. Just tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now before I lose patience," said 'Matt'.

Inwardly, the controlling mind could sense the stunned Matt waking up and turned his mental attention to suppressing him. "Well? Hope you make the reason life savingly good," he said, hoping that it wouldn't be. He'd waited years for a chance to kill someone. "Well, what would you say if I could offer you more power and a chance to decapitate as many people as you wish?" said Chang. 'Matt' stopped. "I'm interested... could you deal with Lynch as well? I want this body to be mine alone," he said, giving the impression that 'No' was a way to earn a filleting. "Hmm, that could take time, but it is achievable. But in the meantime, I could provide a talisman that will keep you in control until I find a means of removing Lynch's consciousness. By the way, if you aren't Lynch, V-627, or the Soul Shade, who are you?" "Draconus, at your service," he proudly said with a sarcastic bow. "Ok...who do you want dead first?" he said. At that moment, one of Chang's orbs began to flash. "It seems we have intruders," she said. She waved her hand over the orb and it showed an image of Draco and Contrinus. Chang smiled and said, "Though I would prefer you to deal with the American Dragon or Lao Shi, that mongrel dragon would make a nice start." Draconus smirked. "Fast or slow?" he said.

---

Leyton was on the comm to Draco at that moment. "For the last time you macho... trog, wait for mine and the Council's men, dragons, whatever, just wait for backup," he was arguing. "Well, I'm sure you could use a couple of scouts to check the area out," said Draco, "We're going to see if we can free Matt or not. If we can't we'll head right back." Before Leyton could object, Draco crushed the communicator in his hand. "I lose more communicators that way," he commented.

The two of them had flown towards the volcano and soon found the entrance to Chang's lair. "Just a quick look, right?" asked Contrinus. "Absolutely," said Draco, "I'm not going to take my chances with Chang. Who knows who she's got working for her?" Suddenly a blue and black dragon with red eyes came flying out of the cave, an evil grin on his face. "Matt?" said Contrinus. "Yes and no," said Draconus, "mostly no." "Well, let's get you back so we can find out what she did to you," said Draco. "I know what she did," said Draconus, "and I like it." With that he pulled out his ion staff and thrust it through Draco's chest. "Noting personal, no wait, it is, I just don't like you," he said before pulling his blade out and turning towards Contrinus. "As for you, I always wanted to try chicken," he said and took a swipe at Contrinus.

Contrinus was stunned as she was the energy blade pierce Draco. Now she let out a scream of horror and fired a ball of concentrated firelight straight into Draconus' eyes. Draconus yelled and swiped blindly, trying to hit the experiment as she flew out of sight. "I'll get her later," Draconus muttered before whispering to Draco. "You hear me? I'm gonna kill everyone Matt knows, if they're lucky," before walking back to the volcano. Contrinus didn't miss a heartbeat and landed besides Draco. She quickly put her claws around the stab wound and concentrated. Golden chi-based energy flowed from her claws and into Draco. In about a minute, the wound was healed up and the area it had been was completely unmarked.

Draconus had no idea of this as he walked back to Chang. "Did you like the show?" he said. "It was entertaining at first, but you forgot to dispatch with the phoenix creature." "Big deal," said Draconus, "what can that skinny bird do?" "That 'skinny bird' just healed that wound you dealt," said Chang, "As long as she's able to function, she can undo your damage." Draconus glared. "So what? Means more fun, re-killable victims," he said sadistically. "What next? I'm sure you have a larger plan." "I do, but it requires us making a visit to the Dragon Archives. I presume you know something about infiltration." Draconus shrugged. "Infiltration, who needs it?" he said. "I could kill em all, maybe cap this Jake guy too." Chang frowned, not expecting this 'Draconus' to be so bloodthirsty. "As much as the idea entertains me, I think we should be more focus on infiltrating the archives without destroying everything in our paths." Draconus glared. "You wanted my help," he said. "I did, but there are some things I would prefer not to destroy until later. How can you savor a fine meal if you gobble it all down all at once?" Draconus glared. "Never eaten before, just shut up or I'll shut you up," he said.

---

Meanwhile, Draco was being treated back at the North Star's medical bay. His injuries were fully recovered from, but he still needed some time to recuperate before he could be active again. Techo looked at the health monitor's readout. "You say Lynch did that?" he said to Contrinus. "Well, when I asked if it was him, he said 'yes and no, mostly no,' I think he was someone else in Matt's body," said Contrinus. Wilson spoke first. "Can't be V-627, the only other time Matt wasn't behind the mental wheel was at Sy-Yong... oops," he said, putting his hand over his mouth as the rest of Matt's old team glared at him. "Sy-Yong?" said Chris, "You don't mean-" "Matt has had experienced more things than you ever have," said Leyton simply, "but the Sy-Yong incident did leave more of a mark on him. It is possible that a part of his mind was segregated to protect the rest of him. And that part could have grown over the years," Techo said first. "Just ignore Wilson, old assignment from the early days of our careers."

"Just where has Matt been?" asked Lilo. "What happened on Sy-Yong?" asked Chip. "What could have built up over the years?" asked Kala. Leyton glowered at them and said, "That isn't your position to ask. And neither is this the subject we should be concerned about now. Right now, we need to find a way of getting Matt under control." Talia spoke up first. "They should know. If it is the infection..." she said. Leyton sighed, "A few months into his and Chloe's stays in Nullspace... the NSC hired them as pilots to take a search and recon team to a colony near the border of the NSC. There was... an incident. A medical nanite serum got out of control and... look, we can't talk about this..." His comm beeped. "Sir, we gotta comm from the team that took the monkey to the council chambers, some kinda attacks going on," said the voice over the comm.

"That's gotta be Matt," said Kala as she headed for the door. "You can't go there," said Techo, "this Matt's completely unhinged. He wouldn't hesitate in blowing a hole through you." "But he only showed up after that Soul Shade thing was tried on him. If that Soul Shade is where this evil persona gets its power from, I might be able to free him."

---

At the council chambers, it was chaos. Leyton's men were trying to hold off Chang and several shades. It had gone well till Capt. Lynch had turned up. Most of them were down except for three now. "Councilmember's, we need to leave, now!" said the sergeant in charge. "Aw, but the party's just getting started," said Draconus as he sent plasma blasts in every direction. Bananas B had managed to get out of his confines and scrambled over to Chang. "This guy's completely off of it," he said, "I don't think it was a good idea to give him that Soul Shade." Draconus just stood there as several dragons surrounded him. "Lookie here, people with death wishes, is this the part where you tell me to surrender?" he said, cockily. Before they could respond, he said, "Too bad, I don't do or take surrenders. I'm gonna get a load outta this." The first dragon had his arm broken before he could even move and was thrown into another one. The third one flamed at Draconus only for a plasma shield to deflect it and Draconus to punch him in the throat and then kick him in the chest, knocking him out. "Too easy, hasn't anyone got a challenge?"

"Enough of this," said Chang, "the Archives are our main concern. Once we're finished there, you can slaughter as much as you want." Draconus glared at Chang, but didn't say no. The CPS sergeant led his men out as the four villains walked into the archive and shut the door, Draconus waving as it shut. A blue dot ran down between the doors, sealing it just as Silvia, NegaMorph and a few droids arrived, having intercepted the comm to the North Star, just as Chris and co also arrived. "What are you doing here?" demanded Chris. "We're trying to prevent a disaster," said Silvia. "I know, whoever's controlling Matt is a maniac," said Chip. "I believe it's worse than that," said Councilor Omina, "There are many spells in the Dragon Archives, including one that could free the Dark Dragon from his millennial imprisonment. But it would require him taking a host body." Chris sighed, "I'm guessing Chang isn't donating herself, so it's either that kid or Matt who's gonna be used." Silvia looked at Chip. "How are we gonna get Mr. Lynch to listen?" "I'm guessing the best way to do that is for someone very close to him to talk some sense into him," said Chip, looking meaningfully at Kala and Silvia. Silvia backed up. "I don't like those looks." NegaMorph gritted the teeth in all his mouths and said, "As much as I deeply despise the mere thought of it, the cyborg's right. If he's close to anyone, it'd be," NegaMorph looked sickened to him stomach, "you." Silvia sighed as Techo passed her an inhibitor. "This had better work." said Wilson.

---

Draconus looked at the half open wormhole. "This is dumb, that's too unstable for a physical being to use," he said to Chang. Upon securing the archives, Chang had said that Draconus's wrist comp's teleporter was needed and had said some mumbo jumbo to open the wormhole. That had been 20 minutes ago and now Draconus, hanging around in dragon form, was getting bored. He hadn't fought a thing for ages. He peered at Alan, who was looking at him with a smirk. "Stop staring before I gut you," he said. Alan's expression didn't change as he said, "I always did find you intolerable, even before your bad side got loose. Least I won't have to deal with you for very long." Draconus glared. "You want to double-cross me? Hah. That's a laugh... seriously now," he said. "I didn't say anything about me doing a double-cross. But that doesn't matter now. It's going to be over soon," said Alan. Draconus nailed Alan with a swipe and walked towards where Chang was. "Hey, your pet idiot blabbed, double-cross me will you?" he said angrily, igniting a null plasma orb in his claws.

Suddenly there was a lot of banging on the door. Then a grating voice said, "Step aside. I'll handle this." Then there was even more concentrated banging and the door flew off its hinges. Standing in the doorway was NegaMorph with the fangs in his hand-mouth fully extended and the mouth in the center of his left arms smoking from the volley of blasts he had been firing. Draconus tossed the null orb at NegaMorph, blowing a bookshelf apart in the process. "Chang can wait... might as well finish matt's business," he said, readying a few more orbs. NegaMorph spread his dorsal spines into wings and quickly took to the air. "You don't scare me, Draconus. Plasma dragon powers or not, you're still an EXP AI." Draconus roared angrily. "NO! I'M BETTER THEN THE OTHERS! I WAS AROUND FIRST!" he yelled, blasting a burst of fire into NegaMorph's chest. Alan staggered over to Chang. "Is that portal ready? I don't want to be around when he's finished off that blob."

Draconus was about to return his attention to the others when a scroll hit him in the back of the head. NegaMorph was standing up and dusting himself, the hole in his chest healing up as he did so. "Apparently you're all brutality, no brains. I can regenerate. You have to do a more thorough job than that," he said. Draconus grinned evilly and started to ignite the plasma in NegaMorph. NegaMorph shrieked as he was being burnt up from the inside out. "This should be slow...just so you can...enjoy it all," he said before a laser blast hit him in the back. "Stupid blob, why didn't you wait? He's my brother," said Chloe, holding a pulse blaster. Draconus turned and looked at her. He grinned and said, "Chloe, long time no see. Always good to see my sister again." Chloe rolled her eyes and said, "You're a really lousy actor, you know that?" "You're right, I am," admitted Draconus as he sent a plasma blast at her. Chloe obviously had similar abilities like Matt did in human form, agility being top of the list. She jumped the blast with ease and fired an electrical blast into Draconus. "Oh...that hurt Chloe...my turn," he said firing a rapid spread at her. Neither noticed what Chang was doing with the portal.

By that point, the portal had grown into a swirling mass of different colors of blue. "It is nearly complete," she said, "All we need is the host..." She sighed in annoyance at the sight of the Lynch siblings fighting. "I don't have time for this," she muttered. She summoned her shadow demons and said, "Take care of her and anyone who tries to interfere." Draconus, NegaMorph, who had stopped burning when Draconus changed targets, and Chloe turned as the shadow demons advanced. "Dammit," said Draconus, turning to Chloe. "I'll deal with you two second," he said and slashed two demons in half. NegaMorph glared at the demons and said, "You want a piece of me?" "Looks like there isn't much more to want," said Chloe. NegaMorph looked down and noticed, with some annoyance, that he currently resembled a badly-baked devil's food donut. He quickly healed up the hole and drew his Lockblade. "I can see the family resemblance," he muttered. Chloe spoke into the comm as she blasted shadow demons. "Hey, Lao Shi, how was this gonna work? Looks like this guy needs more then a mental prod," she said, ducking another slash and countering it. "You are his sister," said Lao Shi, "You have a deep connection to him that can be breach his evil side if you speak from the heart. It's not like we have a Soul Shine to force it out." Chloe sighed and ducked as Draconus decided to take a swing at her instead. "Matt. Snap out of this or I swear as your sister that I will kick your arse into the next sector," she said, as Draconus tried another slash.

"Show more feeling!" called Chip, "Show that sibling sincerity!" Then he paused and said, "Say, where did Morph go?" A moment later, they heard the sound of screaming and loud hoofbeats. They turned to see Morph being chased by an irked-looking Minotaur. They barely had time to get out of the way before they ran right past them and into the archive room. The lynch siblings turned as the Minotaur and Morph ran in. Matt took control for a minute and pushed Chloe clear. "Thanks," said Chloe before kicking him off. "Draconus...musta decided you'd be more fun uncrushed....urgh!" he said, grabbing his head for a second as it pounded. It was a shame, for the Minotaur, as Draconus was in a bad mood. It was knocked senseless as Draconus vented on it. Chip looked at the Minotaur and an idea came to his mind. "This should be good," he said. He grabbed a bucket of red paint and a paintbrush from where someone was doing renovations, sneaked behind Alan, and painted his backside red. As soon as the Minotaur woke up, Chip whistled shrilly to get its attention. Chloe was impressed with the result as Alan was knocked into the wall next to Chang who petrified the Minotaur with a spell. "Well, it was nice while it lasted. First I kill you, you little pain of a sister, then Chang," said Draconus before his head pounded again forcing him to his knees. "That's it...you're not gonna be bossed around by some AI reject," Chloe said.

Chang returned her attention to the portal. Inside, she could see an image of an ancient temple. Then she sensed a presence on the other side. She sent a message through the portal, "I have a host body waiting for you. The Soul Shade inside will help establish control." NegaMorph however had heard Lao Shi over the comm. "We have got a shine," he said, making a canister appeared with a miffed-looking Kala inside. "When did you last check your Negamouth? It's terrible in there," she said, being let out before running and jumping on Draconus's back. Draconus managed one word before the soul energies reacted. "No..." he said before the light from the reaction blinded everyone.

Black and white sparks flew everywhere as Draconus roared in pain. Kala gritted her teeth and held on, no matter how much pain she was suffering. Eventually, a black aura was expelled from Draconus and flew through the air. It hit the portal, which caused it to collapse on itself. But not before something else came through and homed in on the only other Soul Shade victim, Alan. 'Alan' opened his eyes. "Chang? Is this the body you promised me?" he said angrily. "My lord?" said Chang nervously. "Er, there's been... a disruption. I did not intend for this to-" She was interrupted when Matt sent a plasma orb into her. "That's for planning to use me as the Dark Dragon's hotel room," he said. Chloe came up and added a shock, "And this is for New York, from Silvia." She noticed Matt's stare. "She asked," she added defensively. The duo turned to look at the Dark Dragon and Matt said, "And this is for being a general pain in the butt." And they fired a double blast at him, only for him to fly out the way. "Stay still, you nutcase," said Chloe, firing rapid bursts only for the Dark Dragon to blast a piece of wall loose and throw it at them, knocking them down. "We must leave," he said. But then NegaMorph swooped in and buried most of his Lockblade into the Dark Dragon's back. "And that's for using me as a battery," he said. The Dark Dragon roared, but he still remained in Alan's body. He whacked aside NegaMorph, pulled out the Lockblade, and tossed it after him. Then he and Chang quickly flew out the hole, Bananas B clinging onto Chang's tail.

Matt pushed a piece of wreckage off him and Kala to see NegaMorph about to remove what looked like an inhibitor off of Chloe. NegaMorph paused when he heard a humming and turned to see Matt holding a plasma orb. "Don't you dare," he said coldly. Kala put her hand on Matt's side and said, "We have to, Matt. We made a deal." "What deal?" demanded Matt. "The only reason I allowed that thing on Silvia is so Chloe could snap you out of it. And now that it's done..." NegaMorph yanked the inhibitor off and crushed it in his fist. "The next time I crush an inhibitor that you put on Silvia, your head will be in it." Chloe shuddered for a second and turned to Matt, Silvia in control again. "I'm...sorry," she said, seemingly sincere. Matt just turned to see several of the Dragon Council. 'Now we're in for it,' said V-627. Matt just said to Silvia, "Yea...I bet you're REAL sorry...and NegaMorph? The next time, you won't be in enough pieces to stop me."

Then Matt's attention shifted back to the Dragon Council. "Matthew Lynch," said Councillor Andam, "if it weren't for the fact that you were possessed at the time, you would be sentenced to life imprisonment. However, since you were possessed, we'll let you go for now. But if something like this happens again, there will be consequences to pay." Matt just stared gloomily at the floor. "I've already been punished," he said, walking out.

* * *

Well, that's the end of that section. I feel bad for Matt, being controlled by his evil side and losing his sister again. But you have to admit, that part with Chip and Bananas B was to die for. We should be returning to a normal update schedule now, hopefully not one that takes weeks between updates. Please review.


	7. Parasitic Pandemondium

**Retrieval Saga**

**Dragon's Temptation**

**Chapter 7: Parasitic Pandemonium**

While the gang had been at Draco Island, not everything had been peaceful in New York State. In an outskirt town, the local PD were surprised as hell when, during what looked like a run of the mill break in, several military vehicles with the letters 'NSC' on them came and shoved them off of the operation.

Marine Captain Hawkes, of the NSC Security response division considered their destination to agree to leave a blessing. The guy they'd surrounded was none other then the Empire's newest commander, Splicer. "This is your last warning, surrender or we come in after you," he called, as his men got into position. A responding call answered, "Go ahead! Do your worst! You'll never take me, coppers! I shall devour all your spleens!" Hawke turned to his lieutenant and said, "This guy's a full-blown loon." The lieutenant nodded. "Utter psycho. He's got 10 destroyer droids and a type-7 EXP warhead in there," he said and pulled Hawkes down just as a laser burnt a slice out the wall behind him. "...oh, and two droid snipers, hold on," he said, listening to his comm., "Crap, sir? The local PD's sent in their SWAT unit, the idiots." Already MP5 gunfire and laser blasts, as well as Splicer's laughter could be heard. Hawkes swore as well. "All units, move in...NOW. Adsons, where's that Air support fleet com promised me?" he said angrily "They should be here any moment now, sir," said the lieutenant. Suddenly a large chunk of slime landed nearby. "If it starts moving, shoot it. If it's got someone's body part in it, shoot it and then try to disinfect it."

Suddenly, the garage door on the warehouse smashed open and a semi flew out, smashing a cop car apart as it drove away. A destroyer droid sitting in the open back also added its own lasers to the chaos. "Dammit...STOP!" he yelled as a few police cruisers flew past in pursuit. Officer Collins was in the rear cruiser. "All units on Highway 52, hijacked semi leaving a break in, heading for the Manhattan entryway, all available units, we gotta stop that truck," he said. Just as he said this, the strange machine in the truck fired a twin blast into the lead cruiser, sending it into a tailspin and smashed up the cruiser behind it. The truck came barreling down the street, without any regard as to who or what was in the way. "Beep, beep, coming through!" called Splicer as he nearly hit some pedestrians. Hawkes noticed that the stoplight up ahead was turning red, with no possibility of Splicer being able to cross in time. Collins smiled, thinking that they'll be able to catch him when he stops. His grin changed to one of horror when he saw no sign of Splicer slowing down. "My god," he said, "he's going to drive out into that highway."

Hawkes was watching via a feed from one of his own units in the pursuit just as two thunderbolt class starfuries flew overhead. "This is Black Viper leader. On station." Hawkes said into the comm. "Ok, you can't use explosives on that truck, sonic cannons only."

Black Viper's leader nodded. "Roger, all units. Sonics only," he said. The pilot in the other ship replied and the fighters switched and began firing, creating craters in the concrete where the bursts hit.

Inside, Splicer could feel the blasts as they missed. Splicer winced in pain as the sonic vibrations of the blasts rippled through him. "Use sonic blasts to take me down, will they? Well, I'll take them all down. These bombs should reach up to them. Too bad they can't regenerate like me." He didn't get a chance though as a burst smashed the truck cab flat and caused the truck to cartwheel into the air and land the wrong way up. The pilot looked down as the fighters hovered. "All ground units. Target is disabled. Combat Hazmats move in and secure target."

Most people would rather not see pictures of someone who's been in an accident, of the blood, exposed bones, and occasional grey matter. With Splicer, there wasn't any of that, but it still wasn't a pretty picture. He was currently in a puddle-like form, his supportive armor crushed by the crash. 'So this is how it ends,' thought the symbiote, 'Struck down by a car accident. Has a symbiote ever suffered a lowlier death?' His mental requiem speech was interrupted when he felt a pressure. Someone had just stepped on him. As insulted as he was, he slipped a piece of himself onto the foot like a drowning man at a life preserver.

It was several days later. Leyton looked at a screen at Matt, sitting in a flash training machine as Draco came up behind him. "Er, sorry to bother you," said Leyton. Matt groaned and said to himself, "Maybe it's just a hallucination. The flash training's making think I'm hearing Leyton." Leyton sighed and turned to Draco. "I can understand you here, you wanna make sure that Draconus is gone for good, don't you," he said as Matt began humming to himself. "Well, for good might take a long time, but I'd be satisfied if I didn't have to deal with him for several months," said Draco. "I trust you're feeling better?" said Leyton. "Healed up nicely, main reason I was out was because of shock." Behind him, Matt was humming a particularly loud version of 'Oh, Britannia'. Luckily the machine then finished. "Oh… oh, hi Draco, and Sir," he said, "Erm…was I singing in my sleep?" he asked.

To Matt's relief, another mercenary came over to Leyton and said, "Sir, we have another report of a theft." "More mechanical parts?" asked Leyton. "Yes sir, should we reinforce security on the EXP bomb payload?" Leyton nodded. "Yea...NSC will be here tomorrow to retrieve the parts....what else?" he said, noticing the mercs nervous look. "Erm...about that..." he began and was pushed aside by a Chinese guy in a NSC agent uniform who said, ",..they're already here. Agent Neilsson…we're here to do what you should be doing, catching this thief," he said rudely before spotting Draco. "What is that doing here?" he said. "What's that supposed to mean?" asked Draco. But Leyton intervened, "He's not an actual dragon, he just looks like one. And we are trying to catch this thief. I suppose you have some idea of who or what it is."

Neilsson smirked. "Unlike you, my men do their job, he said, ignoring Leyton's furious look. He pulled out a hologram projector and turned it on, a familiar person appeared. "Splicer, Commander Splicer at the moment. He tried to attack New York State while you were busy having a pleasure trip on that...island," he said. "It was Matt's turn to glare. "Hey, you hold on a second..." he began. Neilsson cut him off with a glare of pure venom. "Shut up, dragon," he said, putting pure anger into the voice. Even his aide looked a bit shocked. "Hold on, man," said his aide.

Chip had walked into the room and had heard the conversation. "Splicer? He's a commander? Why would the Empire hire him? He doesn't need a position, he needs a straitjacket." Neilsson sighed. "The Empire apparently isn't happy with him, after he lost that bomb You guys are going to help my men set up a trap for him. Intel believes he's trying to make a backup device," he said in a more normal tone of voice. "But how could he possibly be doing that?" asked Matt, "From what I've heard, he was killed in that crash. Unless he's come back from the dead. Hopefully not that, but because I've had enough of undead." Neilsson smirked. "C'mon. You know better then anyone else how...resilient symbiotes are. We only recovered his suit's remains and 94% of his organic mass," he said. "We're setting up a trap at a warehouse downtown. My...colleague says we might need a 'Mr. Long's' aid?" he said. "Not a bad idea," said Draco, "He may not know much about aliens, but he knows most of New York like the back of his hand." Neilsson glared but ignored Draco, turning to Leyton. "Keep your reptiles on a close leash. If they mess up this op, I will take them apart," he said and walked out. Matt looked after him. "Polite guy, I didn't know the NSC was hiring idiots." Leyton sighed. "I heard he's an ex-huntsclan," he said before adding, "You might as well go, wouldn't wanna keep the nutcase waiting."

Neilsson was waiting for Matt and Draco when they turned up. "Nice of the lizards to join us," he said with a sneer. Chris, Lilo, Stitch, Chip, and Morph were already there. By the look of things, Chris was only just stopping himself from hauling off and punching out Neilsson's lights. "Onto business," said Leyton, "we've gotten several reports of thefts throughout the cities, the purpose apparently being to steal technology. We're not quite sure of the purpose, but thanks to new footage, we now have some idea what we're up against." Neilsson clicked a remote and a CCTV file popped up. A small group of security guards were walking around when the doubledoors blew open and several blasts zipped in. The guards fired back but were systematically knocked out. Finally a familiar shape walked in. "SPLICER!" yelled Matt, jumping up. Neilsson sighed. "Sit down, you genetic hybrid reject," he said angrily. It was Stitch's turn to growl now. "Out of my way, sonny," cackled Splicer as he swatted aside the last guard. Then he turned to the camera and said, "I hope you've enjoyed my little performance, but I'm afraid the show's over. That's all folks!" There was a flash of energy and the camera went dead. Matt glared back at Neilsson and said, "I will help, but it's not because you asked me to. I'm just doing it so I have one less gelatinous nutcase to deal with."

"Man, that guy is a creep," said Draco. "From my understanding, Huntsclan members weren't that nice to other sentient species, with Rose being the exception," said Chris. One of the crew said "I heard the clan won in his world, hence his 'holier then thou' attitude." "Sounds like a world that went down the tubes," said Chip, "Personally, I prefer science over magic, but there's a slim divider between his type of xenophobia and the kind against aliens." Chris shrugged. "Judging from the clan we've met so far, there isn't one," he said as Matt caught up, holding a file. "What a smeghea, sadly, he's a smeghead who can make up charges against us and impound the ship," he said. "Doesn't that constitute as 'misuse of power'?" asked Kala. Matt and Chris looked at the experiments and Lilo before laughing. "Since when have the NSC agents not misused their powers?" Matt said

The group emerged into the lift to the surface to see several squads of fully-armored NSC assault marines, checking weaponry. "I get the feeling this isn't a capture mission," said Matt slowly. "The symbiote is completely deranged and is a threat to innocents. Not to mention he is in league with the Hamstervielian Empire, so he is an enemy of the NSC, Galactic Alliance, and other enemy nations and organizations. There isn't much of a reason to take him back alive," said Neilsson. Matt glared. "And the poor guy he's inhabiting? Won't it be a bit nasty to vaporize them or fill them full of bolter rounds?" he said in a sarcastic voice. "We don't have any evidence that he's taken a host. And you said that he prefers mechanical hosts over organic ones." Chris sighed "Listen smeghead, the CPS have his suit in the evidence hold, in bits," he said in a 'talking to idiots' tone. "It's more than probable that he built an impromptu suit as a temporary shell. If he's able to build EXP bombs and genetic accelerators, he could probably scrap something together so he could act on his own." Matt sighed. "You'd better be right. You said it yourself, accidents happen," he said angrily.

Neilsson's men and the crew had come to an old Microsoft warehouse in the dockyards. Matt was currently not enjoying it was it was torrential rain. "Can't we have waited till it wasn't drowning weather?" he moaned, taking off his hat and wringing the water out of it. Techo wasn't any happier with it. "Why is that these thing always take place during rainstorms?" he said. Draco was currently wrapped around Wilson's shoulders, trying to warm himself up with his body heat. Matt shrugged. "Tradition I suppose," he said and looked around for Neilsson before turning on the comm. "Who are you calling at this time?" said Chip. Matt smirked. "Always useful to have an 'eye in the sky'. You there, Jake?" he said. "Reading you loud and clear," said the American Dragon as he hovered above the warehouse. "I hope you guys know how to handle this guy, cause I've never heard of an alien symbiote before."

"Me and my sis took out a stationful once," Matt said with glee before Chris dragged him down and pointed. A shadowy figure was coming out the warehouse door next to them, Neilsson's stupid intel had gotten them all guarding the wrong warehouse. Matt pulled out a sonic pistol and pressed it into the figure's back. "Surrender time, slime features," Matt said gleefully. "Well, well," said an annoying high-pitched voice, "if it isn't Matty boy. And you've got your lion friend too. I remember him fondly. One of the best hosts I've had, for an organism that is. I think we should link up again." Matt clicked off the safety and the end of the gun glowed as it charged. "I heard about your run-in with some starfuries, you must be an idiot. How did you keep escaping?" Matt said. "Well, that's for me to know and you to find out." Matt found Splicer to be very testing on his nerves, particularly after he blew a raspberry at him. His mood changed when the tongue stretched out and grabbed Chris by the neck. Matt fired, blasting the slime tongue which dissolved into nothing. "Didn't your mom teach you not to stick your tongue out...mam?" he said, finally getting a good look. After a few seconds he and Chris laughed.

Splicer glared at them, which didn't seem as threatening as Splicer was obviously using a woman for a host. "Well, she was the first living thing that came in contact with me after the crash, didn't have much choice. But at least she's very useful." Splicer suddenly jumped into the air and kicked Matt in the chest. "Ow, guess she knows martial arts of some kind," said Matt, getting back up to see Splicer hitting Chris in the face before aiming CXhris's blaster at him. "This is gonna sting." said Matt before several bolter rounds from some of Neilsson's marines shot through Splicer's chest, though the only reaction was to annoy him. Splicer growled and said, "Can't go anywhere with the CPS shooting at me." Splicer picked Chris and threw them at the marines, causing to go down like bowling pins. Matt was on his feet again and grabbed Splicer from behind, pressing a small bug into the symbiote's back in the confusion before he was backflipped out the way. Neilsson had obviously had enough as two hovering starfuries came into view and began unloading in Splicer's direction. "This is really too much," said Splicer as he dodged the blasts. He sent two sprays of slime at the starfuries' windshields, completely blinding them. "It's getting more crowded than I expected. I better be going now."

Matt watched as Splicer shapeshifted into a dragon form and took flight, the two fighters chasing once they'd static cleaned the windshields. The pilot of starfury, Viper One, swore as he cleared the null-damned slime to see the symbiote fleeing. "All furies, seek and destroy. We cannot allow that creature to find the samples," said Neilsson over the radio. "Roger, Viper Two, you with me?" he said over the comm. "Roger, preparing to destroy target," replied the pilot in Viper Two. Splicer had just flown by him and notice that the missile launchers were pointing towards him. "This is going to be painful and peculiar," he said to himself. Then he opened his mouth wide and belched fire at the two starfuries. Viper Two, bank right!" yelled Viper One's pilot, just as the goo shot into the engine of his sister craft, crippling it and causing it to crash into a building side. "Oh, you are dead, you little slime," viper one said and began firing at the cackling, fleeing figure, each round from the ship's gatlling railgun tearing huge holes out of whatever it hit. The symbiote dragon dodged the rounds and landed on the back. "Such nasty toys. I better take them away before you put an eye out," he said as he ripped them off. "And by the way, you're grounded." He then ripped the wings off and leaped off.

Back with Neilsson, he watched as Viper One's feed was cut off and another distant boom was heard. He rounded on the closest scapegoats, in this case Chris and Matt who were being seen to by a NSC medic. "YOU IDIOTS! HOW COULD YOU LET THAT MUTANT ESCAPE?" he practically screamed. "Hey, you said he wouldn't have a host. So we weren't expecting to be attached to one, let alone a female dragon," said Chris. Neilsson seemed to calm down then said. "Well, it's obvious you are ill equipped to destroy this...thing. I will be calling command for more marines. That thing won't survive the week, whatever host it has," he said and stomped off. Matt smirked then pulled out a device like a TV remote, "Not if we find him first."

* * *

There's another chapter at last. Sorry it's taking me so long to update this story. I've kinda been preocupied with school and my co-author's Digimon fic. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this before the month's up. Until then, please review.


	8. Arrestment

**Retrieval Saga**

**Dragon's Temptation**

**Chapter 8: Arrestment**

The Weather had taken a turn for the worse since the disaster at the warehouse. Matt had seemed very smug for a loser though when he'd signed out three humvees, two crates of sonic charge rifles and gotten 12 other mercs to help. Techo, Chip, Draco and Matt were in the lead vehicle, Matt driving and looking at what looked like a GPS every few turns. "For someone who just got fired from a contract, Matt's very cheerful." said Techo to Draco as the small convoy turned into the Chinatown area. "I know," said Draco, "But unfortunately, it's the kind of cheerfulness that usually gets us in trouble."

Matt turned his comm on. "Unit two, circle round the back and cover the side exits. Non-lethals only. I wouldn't give that symbiote the satisfaction." he said as a gym came into view. Matt jumped out first and was so busy looking at the GPS as he walked towards the entrance that he walked straight into Jake. "Jake? What are you doing here?" asked Matt. "Picking up Haley," responded Jake. Matt looked up questionly up at the gym. "You do know she's only seven, right?" he said. "She's getting dragon training from Sun Park, her teacher," said Jake. Matt shrugged then slapped the GPS. "Bloody junks on the blink again." He sighed and pulled out the sdare device and saw the same location. "Er, Jake?" he said slowly as the rest of the convoy team jumped out and headed for the doors. "You didn't happen to see anyone... unusual as you were coming here, did you?" "Not more than the usual crowd," said Jake. "Well, maybe you better stay behind me, this could get messy," said Matt as he approached the gym doors.

Matt nodded to one of the other mercs and slowly opened the door. "You, you...take upstairs," he said to two of the mercs who nodded and headed for some stairs. The door at the far end also opened and several mercs with sonic blasters ran by.

Techo and Chris went in and headed towards the locker rooms. Techo positioned himself outside of the door to the women's room. He counted to three and then kicked the door open. There was the sound of a woman screaming and Techo quickly closed the door, his face a bright red. "Sorry lady, didn't see a thing," he called. Matt sighed then looked at the GPS again, which had altered to a floor plan. "In there," he pointed.

Several mercs came in and pointed their weapons at various places. This moment became rather anticlimactic when all they saw were a Korean woman and an Asian girl with some gym equipment. "I'm gonna kill the GPS programmer," muttered Matt. "Hey, that program is mine- cousin's, my cousins'," said Techo. Matt glared at Techo before looking at the GPS again. "I'm just gonna recall the drone. Hell of alot easier," he said. The tiny spiderlike drone dropped from the roof, minorly concussing Draco.

Techo was the first to snap back. "Erm...huddle, guys," he said, waving to Draco, Chip, and Matt. "If the drone's here, then Splicer's here too," he said. "Oh, I see him," said Draco. "Where? He's running around my head. Oh, and he brought his siblings too." "Nevermind him, he's delusional," said Chip, "Fortunately, I know of one thing a symbiote like him can't resist." He reached into his compartment and drew out one of the largest chocolate bars Matt has ever seen. Matt stared at Chip. "Have you caught Spyware again?" he said levelly. "I've done some research and apparently chocolate's one of two sources where phenethylamine is most abundant. And symbiotes need this stuff for their constitution." "What's the other source?" asked Matt. "Human brain matter," said Chip flatly. Matt, Techo and the, by now, eavesdropping mercs all looked over at Sun and Haley and slowly backed away a few steps. Matt carefully took the chocolate and pulled the wrapper off. "Anyone want some dairy milk?" he said loudly.

As soon as the wrapper came off, PlasMorph caught the scent. "CHOCOLATE!" he screamed and came charging around the corner towards Matt. Fortunately, Chip was prepared and hit him on the head with a frying pan. Matt turned to Sun and Haley then over at Jake. Techo muttered to Jake, "If it's Haley, sorry for the stunning," before taking the safety off. However, it wasn't who the squad expected.

Suddenly Sun's mouth grew several fangs and a long prehensile tongue lashed out and grabbed the chocolate bar. It brought it back where it was quickly and messily devoured. "Ew, that could've been my brain," muttered Chris. 'Sun's' chest blossomed with laser sights as the mercs all aimed. "Splicer...erm...whatever your surname is, you're under arrest," said Matt, aiming. Splicer appeared proper, its liquid form covering Sun from head to toe. "Oh, I'd best surrender then," she said sarcastically and sent a tentacle out that floored a row of mercs before the others fired sonic blasts into her, much to Haley and Jake's shock. "My teacher's an alien?" cried Haley. "Welcome to my life," said Matt as he flew past. Splicer pinned Chris to the wall and said to him, "If you don't mind, I'd prefer being linked to you. Your adrenaline level's more compatible to me and you have more muscle mass." Then he looked somewhat uneasy, "And I can't help but get the feeling that people are oggling me."

Matt ran up and shoved a collar round Splicer's neck that let out a whine before the sound passed into the ultrasonic. The effect on Splicer was immediate, the symbiote screamed before vanishing, leaving a shocked Sun wondering why she had Chris by the throat. "What just happened?" asked Haley. "Long story short: your teacher was possessed by an alien parasite that used her to commit various thefts around the city," said Chip. "Oh, you think I'd not be surprised by this type of thing." "Again, my life," said Matt just as Neilsson and his men burst in. Neilsson pointed towards Sun. "That's the one, take her into custody. In fact, take them all in," he said. Matt glared and stepped in the way. "Hey, the Longs have nothing to do with this and Miss Park didn't get much of a choice." Two of Neilsson's men went up to grab Sun only for Jake to dragon up and him and Chris to floor the two troopers. The other troopers raised their rifles and fired two neat stun blasts. Matt lost it and aimed a plasma-fueled punch at Nielsson, only for another blast to hit him in the back...

--

He came to on a hard bunk. "Dammit..." he muttered to, realizing he was in a cell. He got up and saw Jake was his cellmate. "Ok, what hit me?" he said as his head throbbed from the stun bullets' after effects. "I don't know, but I think we're in for something big," said Jake. A few moments of silence passed before they heard Draco's voice call, "Chris! If you don't stop playing that blasted harmonica, I'm going to shove it down your throat!"

"Well, the others are here," said Matt happily, before laying back. "You'll be fine, not even Neilsson would take a timeline specific out his world. Sun however, and me, we're in smeg sector...big time." "Well, isn't there something about someone being force to act against their will/knowledge?" asked Jake. "Neilsson's from another version of this world, he was Huntsclan. How he got a job in NSC military is beyond me, but he's the one writing the report, you get me?" Matt said glumly. "All this fancy tech and you guys don't have lie detectors?" demanded Jake. "Of course we do," said Matt sarcastically, "Everyone has one so we can tell who's fibbing or not."

Suddenly a familiar buzzing sounded in the next room. "I see they sent men to the ship, HEY FIBBER!" called Matt through the wall. The door was banged on. "Shut up, ya dumb reptiles," said the guard from outside. Matt glared at the door. "I hope we get out soon, and meet Neilsson when he's alone. Nullspace can be so dangerous..." said Matt, with a suitably evil smirk.

"For the last time, confess you snake!" yelled Neilsson. "I told you, I don't recall anything of what you said that creature made me do. It must have been doing it while I was asleep." "Fine!" snarled Neilsson, "I guess we'll have to get more physical then." He waved to a splitter standing in human form in the corner. The figure walked forward, his hand crackling with electricity. "Useful things, splitters. They're living tazers," said Neilsson conversationally before spotting the collar. "What...is that?" he said, pointing to it. "I don't remember putting this on," said Sun. "Well, we don't want anything intefering with the torture," said Neilsson as he ripped it off. The instant it was off, Splicer's purple goo covered Sun. "Thanks for that," said Splicer, "I hate being kept dormant under living beings. Good thing I figured out how to suppress consciousnesses. Speaking of which, you're about to be unconscious." Neilsson backed up and pulled out his blaster, firing two rounds into Splicer to no effect before being pushed through the wall. Splicer stepped through the hole, ignoring the rounds that bounced off her. "Now then...might as well finish the job the emperor gave me," she said, before firing a few spikes into the attacking troopers and heading towards the armory.

--

Matt was trying to fall asleep when the lights went out and an alarm began to wail. "Well, something tells me Neilsson did a very stupid thing," said Matt as the door's magnetic lock failed. "Well, since the door's open, I guess we can walk out," said Jake. The two of them stepped outside to see Spicer-Sun walking towards them. "Then again, maybe we should stay in." "Hi again, Splicer. I'm guessing Neilsson was an idiot...right?" said Matt, readying a plasma ball. "Indeed," said Splicer, "That's the deal with some humans, too arrogant to see what's really going on. Now if you excuse me, I've got pressing business." With that, Splicer forced Sun into her dragon from and started slashing out with several tentacles. Matt blasted a few before blasting the locks on Chris's and Draco's door. "A little help?" he said, blasting a tentacle apart. Suddenly Splicer stopped and Sun's voice said, "No, violence is not the answer." Jake and Matt paused for a minute before Splicer said, "Psyche!" and punched them through Techo and Chip's cell door. Splicer laughed insanely. "Idiots," he said before blasting the far door down and heading into the firing line of Chip. "You really want to try that?" he said before whacking Chip into a filing room and fire blasting the lock till it melted.

"Hello? Hey! Let me out of here!" yelled Chip as he pounded the door. Then he noticed the filing room was in terrible disarray. "Well, as long as I'm in here," said Chip as he picked up some papers.

Meanwhile, the remains of Neilsson's force were blocking the room with Splicer's old EXP-bomb, firing with everything they had when Splicer strolled cockily into view. "Sorry fellas, but I've got a job to do," said Splicer as he glued them to the walls. Then he noticed something on the table. "My armor! I've been looking everywhere for that!" He leapt off Sun's body and latched himself to the armor's remains. He grabbed a canister of nanobots to help repair the damage. As Splicer got into his suit, a red searchlight focused on him. "You are not authorized..." said a male voice and several larger versions of Matt's tracker drone scuttled out of alcoves and aimed small-looking blasters at the symbiote. "Please release the reptilian lifeform at once," said the room's A.I. "Beat it, peewee," said Splicer as his robotic tentacles extended. The lead drone's eyes turned red and a thin black beam chopped the tentacles off neatly before the other drones opened fire. Splicer quickly realized he was outmatched and lassoed both the EXP bomb and Sun. "You'd make a good hostage," said Splicer, "not to mention a tasty snack."

The drones fired earnestly as Splicer blasted a hole in the wall and escaped, a few even scuttling after him till he crossed the base's perimeter. The drones, programmed and fueled by the proximity of the base's computer, had to stop at the boundary. "Aw, is someone's leash too tight?" mocked Splicer. The A.I however knew an insult and literally parted his head with a final blast. Splicer's body nearly lost its integrity, but then Splicer's head extended a tentacle and reconnected with the neck. Then Splicer got his head back on and said, "Annoying little pests, I have just the thing to take care of you." He tossed what appeared to be an electrical grenade, but it had been reprogrammed to take in electricity instead of charging it out. The drones just sniggered and vaporized the grenade before scuttling away as several mercs ran out shooting. Splicer merely made a rude hand sign at them before leaping away.

"You fool!" yelled Neilsson at Matt, "How could you let that thing get loose?" "I let it loose?" yelled Matt incredulously, "You're the one who took of that collar!" Neilsson glared at the beaten crew. "You...you and your genetic rejects are the cause for this damn mess. Splicer will destroy the east coast and it's because you were too soft to kill him when you had the cha..." he started but was stopped as Matt knocked him out with a good hard jaw punch. Everyone else's jaws dropped as Neilsson hit the floor. Matt's crew would have applauded right then and there if they didn't sense the antipathy in the air. Matt had also drawn his weapon and was aiming it in Neilsson's face. For a minute it seemed as if Neilsson was in trouble, then Matt lowered his gun. "You're not worth a shot," he said before turning around. "Let's go kick Splicer out of New York," he said.

As the group was running down the hallway, Techo asked, "By the way, what happened to Chip?" Draco heard paper rustling behind a door and used his super strength to rip it off. Chip turned to the others and said, "Oh, hi guys, just finishing up." The filing room was much neater than before with no clutter anywhere. "Chip? How the hell did you do this so fast? Admin have been trying to do that for the last 40 years...it was there when me and Chloe joined...IT WAS THERE WHEN LEYTON JOINED!!!" he said, shocked. "Well, when you're locked in a filing room and have nothing else to do, you might as well tidy up. Can you do me a favor and take this to the recycling bin?" said Chip as he held up a huge bag full of useless paper. Matt glared and vaporized the paper...and the basket. "That answer your question? C'mom...you may be needed to defuse an EXP bomb," he said. As Chip scuttled after them, he said, "Do I get anything for this or is this going to go on unnoticed?" Matt shrugged. "The planet won't be overrun by the empire," he said simply. "We'll need help. We got no idea where Splicer'll set up. It'll have to be somewhere he can hold Sun without difficulty." "What about Jake?" suggested Chris.

--

Splicer looked around the old Huntsclan facility in the subway. It was the same one that Matt and the experiments had broken into months ago and all of the holding tech was still intact, even though the clan was gone. "Nice tech," muttered Splicer, "of course the armory back home's got better stuff, but this could do substantial damage." Just then, Sun got the gag off her mouth, "You won't get away with this!" Splicer smirked. "Blah blah blah...heard it all before...have a taster of the future," he said and fired an EXP dart, only to have it do nothing. "And that's why I hate magic, damn cure all," he said before looking at the other weapons. "Huh, wonder what this could do?" he muttered as he picked up a metallic gauntlet. The gauntlet sent off an energy blast that vaporized his elbow. Splicer regenerated and said, "Neat, I'm taking this back for a souvenir." There was a distant explosion that was nothing more then a distant thud. "Oh, visitors, and me all alone, guess I need backup," he said, making a part of him come off and head for Sun.

--

Matt smirked at Jake and the gang, while standing in dragon form in front of the half-melted door. "Who needs an access code?" he said evilly. "Warning! Intruder alert!" cried the security system. Several nasty-looking lasers focused on the group. "Drat," said Chip, "he must have gotten the security system online again." The guns however only had eyes for Jake, Draco, and Matt. "Guess he didn't change the targeting list though," said Matt, dodging blasts desperately. "He's not the only that has lasers," said Draco and he fired his laser vision. The lasers bounced off one of the blasters and started bouncing off everything reflective in the base. Eventually, the heat of the lasers caused the blasters to melt. Matt watched with interest as the blasters were all removed. "Erm, Jake, any other things we should expect? Giant boulders, spike traps, quantum reactor self-destruct?" he said, running off an internal list. "I'm not sure he'll have enough time to set those up," said Jake, "We should look for Sun."

"Uh, I think she found us," said Techo as he and Chris were being wrapped up in a slimy dragon's tail. Matt and Jake turned as Sun, possessed by another symbiote came into view. "Oh great," he muttered, before Techo was thrown at him. Draco turned to Jake and asked, "You dragons are flame-retardant, right?" When Jake looked insulted, Draco clarified, "I mean fire doesn't hurt you much, right?" "Yeah, why?" "Just checking," said Draco as he started belching flames at the symbiotic Sun. The symbiote shrieked and shriveled up in the heat, leaving a dazed Sun lying on the floor. "Clever, think it'll work on Splicer?" said Matt, checking to see if Sun was ok. "I don't know," said Chip, "I think he'll have plenty of experience to know how to avoid being burnt up." Matt shrugged. "Meh, an interesting experiment," he said as Sun began to stir. Jake knelt down by Sun. As soon as her eyes were open, Jake asked her, "Sun, where's Splicer?" Sun pointed towards the corridor she'd emerged from. Matt shrugged. "Seems simple," he turned to Draco and the others. "Me and Jake'll deal with Splicer, I bet Neilsson's sent some men after us. Make sure they head after us, we'll probably need the help," said Matt.

--

Splicer was humming to himself as he finished arming the bomb. "Warning...Virus payload armed. You have 5 minutes to leave detonation area," it said. Splicer smirked toothily, "A little late, but I always get the job done. Best of all, this'll take that idiot merc with it when it blows." "You rang?" Splicer turned around to see Jake and Matt in their dragon forms. "Oh great, more dragons, you're really getting under my skin," he complained, "Guess I'll return the favor." Several cloned symbiotes sprang out their hiding places towards the duo. Matt flamed a few and had to fly out the way of a second that lunged supposedly at him. "Your clones need to work on their aim," chuckled Matt before a fireball knocked him out the air. "Who said they were aiming for you?" laughed Splicer. Matt turned to see Jake, wearing a new symbiote suit. Matt cursed and said, "Is there anyone these things won't attach themselves to?" He quickly fried the one that was on Jake. Splicer laughed as the smoke cleared to show no effect. "Ah, ah, ah, not twice you don't," he said before turning to the bomb as Symbiote Jake lunged at Matt. "Are you crazy, Jake? He'll fry the whole city with the detonator alone," said Matt, trying to reason with Jake. All he got in response was a mindless savage roar. "That's the trouble with cloning," muttered Splicer, "brains don't get carried on with the DNA."

Draco, Chip, and Morph had followed despite the fact that Matt had told them not to. Heck, they were experiments, disobeying orders was built into their genetics. It was just as well as they saw the fight going on. "Ok, you guys work on the symbiotes, I'll disable that bomb," said Chip. "Boy there sure are a lot these things," said Draco. Suddenly one jumped on Morph and tried to meld with him. However, Morph was able to throw it off easily. "I guess they can't really attach themselves to other blobs," said Draco.

While the others were trying to deal with the symbiotes, Chip focused on that bomb. He snuck over and started typing in a deactivation sequence. Unfortunately, Splicer had looked over his shoulder and saw what he was doing. "Hey! Cut it out!" he yelled. "Make me," challenged Chip. Several robotic tentacles extended from Splicer and shot towards Chip. Chip was able to parry several tentacles with his hands, but there were quite a lot of them. "You can't beat me, you pathetic little android," said Splicer, "You don't have the physical strength to so much as ding my armor." "Well, I wasn't built for hand-to-hand combat, was I?" said Chip as he zapped Splicer with his viral energy.

As Matt grappled with Symbiote Jake, he muttered, "What I wouldn't give for a sonic grenade right now." He noticed Morph running helter-skelter and said, "But I've got the next best thing." He grabbed Morph with his tail and told him, "We need noise, a lot of noise." Morph nodded and morphed into a one-blob band and started playing "The Stars and Stripes Forever" as loudly as he could. Everyone in the room cringed. "I said noise, not aerial torture!" yelled Matt, but unfortunately, Morph couldn't hear him over the din.

The symbiotes couldn't stand the clangor and were being knocked unconscious by it. The symbiote on Jake trembled and melted off in a sticky puddle. Splicer looked like he was at his wit's end. "I can't stand it!" he yelled, "I've got to get away from it!" "Too bad you don't have a soundproof capsule like this," shouted Chip as he held up a capture container. Splicer immediately dived into the container without a moment's hesitation and Chip quickly closed and sealed it. Splicer soon realized he was tricked, but was unable to form a solid-enough shape to break the glass. "Will somebody shut that slug up?" shouted Draco over Morph's music. Matt threw a plasma bolt at Morph, which splattered him into several bits. "You know, you could've just asked him to stop," said Jake. "There are several ways my sanity can become unhinged and each way takes a certain amount of time to recover from," said Matt calmly, "I don't want to find out how long it would take to recover from maddening music." He picked up Splicer's container and the bomb that Chip had just deactivated. "Now let's get these two things out of my sight and hair."

Matt and the gang walked out towards the exit. Techo was standing in the entrance, looking gloomy. "Sorry, Mate. Tried to stop em," he said, letting them past to see a practical army of NSC troops and several urban tanks aiming at them. "Captain Lynch," said Neilsson, who was leading them, "you are under arrest." "Whoa, whoa, whoa," said Matt as he lifted his hands up, "On what charges?" Neilsson held up what looked like a folded piece of paper, until the unfolded end touched the floor. Matt looked at the end of the list. "Sy-Yong destruction? These were all overruled by the council," he said as two troopers grabbed him. "Neilsson shrugged. "They were till you hit me...take him away."

"Now wait just a minute," said Chip, "You can't arrest Matt just when he apprehended Splicer and..." "Since you're the only one around here who's either a tolerable species, mature, or sane, I'll give you this warning," said Neilsson, "Stay out of this or the entire crew will be incarcerated." Chris looked at Jake and Sun. "You can't arrest them, not without the council making your life hell." "I suppose not," said Neilsson, "But then again, I've already got a net full of big fish. Take them away." As the troopers took Matt and Splicer towards the 'paddy-wagon', the others were about to make a move before Matt silently told them to stay where they were. As he was being lead away, Matt asked, "Don't you guys have to read my rights first?" "I was hoping you'd say that," said Neilsson and snapped his fingers. Matt instantly recalled what usually happens when 'criminals' like him ask for their rights. "On second thought, how about we just…" Matt was cut off when the troopers taking him away started whacking him with nightsticks.

"I can't believe Matt's getting pulled away like that," said Jake. "Yeah, if it were me, I'd make some show of it… OW!" Draco started hopping on one foot after Chip stomped on it rather painfully. "This isn't over yet," said Chip, "I have a pretty good hunch as to where Matt's going to end up. Now if you excuse me, I've got a couple law books to read."

* * *

Surprisingly enough, that's the last chapter. Not the type of ending we normally get with our stories, is it? You know what we call these things? That's right, a two-part cliffhanger. To find out more about what happens to Matt when he's sent to prison, look for the next story in the Retrieval Saga. I'm not sure when that'll be, but it'll be worth waiting for. Until then, please review.


End file.
